Dressing up is fun!!!

Tonight was Bunco night, which is fun even when we don't dress up.
I had fun putting my outfit together:That's my best Indiana Jones face. Chuck helped me with my outfit and some of the pieces are his or he made them:
The jacket is his old service jacket, which the department doesn't use any more. I have on his utility belt with a knife and "gun" and we made the whip out of rope and a toy whip. Pretty cute, huh? The hat is one Chuck has had, but doesn't wear because it is too small for him. About 1 hour into the night, I found out it is too small for me too.
See, the dark red line across my forehead? Well, I was feeling really sick and headachy about one hour into the night and I thought, "what if I take the hat off?" and then found that my headache went away!!!
Some of the other cuties of the night:
This is Peg, our hostess, and I just love her clown outfit!!!
Marcy,the pirate.
Tricia, the Bunco Queen.
Virginia, dressed as a "questionable" sports fan....I won't comment on her team of choice.
Marie, the cowgirl and her son Matthew.
A fun night.....
Last year for the Bunco Halloween night, my sister in law was here, so we both dressed up..
A look back:
I was a disco babe, and had to go to Buffalo Wild Wings for my food pick up. I think most people thought I was a hooker. There is not a picture of my incredibly high platform shoes. What a fun night. Here are my "rainbow" false eyelashes. That was a pain to put on, but really fun to wear. I couldn't wait to take them off. I don't know how those people on dancing with the stars do it all the time.

Ta da....secret project revealed

Well, I can now finally show what I was working on so diligently last weekend. I get these crazy ideas, and it is always last minute. After all was said and done, I probably spent over 24 hours on this little brain storm. The reason I had to wait so long, Candice got hers on Wednesday, but Catie didn't get hers until today.
At my last quilt club, the leader (my friend Colleen) showed us these adorable paper pieced blocks that she got off of a free site. So, I got the idea to make them for my girls and put them on a bag, for trick or treating, for carrying things or just for enjoying....
I went on the site, which is Freequiltpatterns.info and went to the paper pieced patterns and low and behold, there was an entire Harry Potter array of quilt blocks. That decided it, because my girls are not just Harry Potter fans, but Harry Potter freaks and have been at bookstores on more than one occasion at midnight to get the new releases. Catie's house dressed up last fall for the incoming freshman as Harry Potter, complete with glasses, ties, and brooms.
So, in the course of three days, I made these blocks and sewed them on to canvas bags:
I put this "HP" symbol with the snitch on one side of the bags.
This was so obviously for Catie. She is a Hedwig fan and loves owls.
This is Trevor the toad, Neville Longbottom's magical creature, and is on Candice's bag. She is a huge Neville fan.
By the way, Chuck picked these out for the girls because they are united in their mutual HP admiration. I just executed the idea.
I also included mucho candy, an adorable pair of Witch socks, a homemade card and these disasters:
They are supposed to be brooms and the idea was a good one, but the chocolate and the peanut butter chips did not cooperate in their melting. Candice said as soon as her roommate saw the cookies, she thought they were brooms, so maybe not a total disaster.
Stay tuned for my Halloween costume for tonight's monthly Bunco game.

The Quilt Group

I just joined an official quilt guild, but for the past two years or so, I have been in a little informal quilt group. It has been a blast!! I really enjoy these ladies and last night was the first time in my recent memory that we were all together, which is kind of funny, because we were in the smallest house. We have recently added two new participants. We meet the second and fourth Thursdays of the month and if there are five Thursdays, like November, we meet the first, third and fifth Thursdays. We also have a "project day" every quarter, which I have already alluded to here in my blog.
These ladies are: (left to right), Elaine, Kathy (aka Sarah), Celia, and Diane. Elaine is new to quilting and just recently joined the group, Kathy, our ex facto chairman, is an experienced quilter and has taken on some old quilt tops that her grandmother gave her. She is finishing a flower garden that was made by her great-great grandmother. It is much bigger than mine. Diane pieces and appliques to get to the hand quilting. She is a master hand quilter and she is an inspiration to me. She is one of the funniest ladies I have ever met. I don't know if she knows how absolutely hilarious she is, but I love being in the same room with her. Last night as we were all getting ready to leave, a few of us were still in the house chatting and she was already outside. She comes back to the door and looks through the screen and said, "hey, what are you talking about in there?" Just like a little kid who is afraid of missing out on the fun. I laughed so hard.


Celia threatened me with death if I took her picture last night. But I didn't take this, Kathy did...
Celia started with standard piecing, but quickly became bored, so she is our resident art quilter and has been inspired by the Journaling quilts we saw at the show in Rosemont. She has such an eye for these things and just makes things up!!! No pattern, I am in awe.
This is Deb and Colleen. We met Deb at Retreat a couple of years ago. She is a retired Navy nurse and is very involved with many organizations. She is in two quilt guilds, very involved in her church and because her husband is also retired, they do lots of stuff together. Our joke with her is that she has had a long arm quilt machine for almost a year and is very afraid to use it.
We are all threatening to bring over our many quilt tops and break it in. The project she has in her lap is from our project day from a year ago. She finished it last night. Last night was the first time Colleen joined us. She is the former owner of the local quilt shop and hasn't had time for our group before now. She just sold it less than a month ago. I am a little sad because she is probably moving to Switzerland or the Netherlands in about 6 months for her husband's job.
The first lady is Saline and then me. When Saline and her husband first retired, they bought and RV and travelled the country. So, for the first year that I was in group, she wasn't there. Her work is so precise. She loves to do applique and the button hole stitch. I am working on my first applique project, which I have alluded to in the past. I am now hand quilting it.
Well, that's our little group. Nothing fancy, just a common passion for all things fabric.

It's finished and boy is it pretty!!

The cabinet for the kitchen is finally finished and now in place. We are both very pleased with the way it turned out. Chuck now admits that garbage picking isn't always a bad thing. It only took me a year to figure out how I wanted this done.
Chuck ended up doing all of the painting since I am such a sloppy painter and he is a perfectionist.
Most of the artistic touches were Chuck's doing. He left the upper shelves red and when adding the black, he put it on lightly so the red would show through. The little stripe of red on the front was also his idea.
He also left the lower inside part red. I am telling you, he has a little bit of "Trading Spaces" in him. All of that TLC and HGTV watching that I do is starting to rub off on him.
Here it is in it's new home:
All of our cookbooks and recipes fit in the lower part and it looks so much less messy than the previous baker's rack.
On to the next project. Still can't show you what I was so diligently working on all weekend. Soon, I promise.

More on my tree...

I showed a picture of my favorite tree last week. It is on Route 83, by the new Grayslake High School. I fear that the district now owns the property because the house is now abandoned and there are no other houses in that corner. I really hope they don't cut the tree down. I look forward to it every fall.
Here it is, changed yet again to a beautiful golden color. Chuck thought I was crazy on Sunday morning, because I insisted that we stop and take a picture of it on our way to church. It was super windy on Sunday and I was afraid that the leaves would be gone before I had an opportunity to snap it again. So, he had to pull over on the wrong side of the road and I had to run across the highway in my heels because otherwise the power lines were in the way. Sure, enough, on my way home from work this morning, the top leaves were almost gone.
Today is very chilly...foretelling of winter soon to come.

Trick or treaters...

Yesterday was our town's trick or treating. It brought back some wonderful memories of making Halloween costumes for my girls, organizing neighborhood parties, and bonfires. So, I am doing some memory making of my own....stay tuned and you will see what I mean. Can't reveal it quite yet.
Some of the cuties who came to the door...
Of all the kids that came to the door, I only know the girl in pink on the right. I am getting old....I thought these girls did a great job. They told me the character on the right is in a band, and one of the other girls said "It's a really bad band!!" So cute....Now, here's some that I think were just in it for the candy. They took what they already have in the closet and just added a little something, not very creative. See, they have on all of their "spirit" paraphernalia.
More gals in that age range. The two in the middle were adorable. The one in the black and white was "prom queen 1988" and her dress was absolutely hideous from that era. She said she got it at the Good Will. It was low slung with huge white puff sleeves and a giant bow right at her lower hip. Not that we would ever draw attention to that part of our bodies, ladies. The third one you can't see very but she had a very "mod" shimmery dress and had white tights on and go-go boots. She was definitely in her disco days.
Just one more...but how I could go on...

The kid on the left was so cute. I asked if he was a mad scientist and he said I was the first to recognize that, so he gave me his "crazy" face. The kid in the back was supposed to be the scream character, but he hated the mask, so he was supposed to give me his best scream face. I don't see any melting....must have more face melting.
I must look very trust worthy, because there was no hesitation about my asking to take their pictures. A few times, I wondered if they would say no, but they all agreed.
I think we missed many of the little ones because we didn't get home until 2:30 and it started at 1. That disappointed me, not only because I think I missed some of my friend's kids, but also because I only buy candy that I like, so there are Reeses, M&M's, gummy things of all kinds and Tootsie stuff in the house. The scale for my Monday weigh in was not kind this morning. I guess that's what happens when your dinner is candy....
Just a fun day, other than leaf raking in the horrible wind by Chuck. He put 5 cans at the curb this morning and he said that was only about 1/3 of what's out there. It's a weekly job.
Stay tuned regarding what I was doing all day.

I fixed it!!!

The last time I posted, I showed you the little fridge quilt I made and that I couldn't stand that it was crooked. Well, I fixed it, because it stares at me all the time:
It is probably barely perceptible to the non sewer-quilters out there, but to me, it was awful. It's still not the best, but now I can live with it.
My friend Mary Jane bought me a book at the book sale at her library. It is in perfect condition and I love children's books:
The illustrations are so fantastic and there is a picture on the inside that has over 250 quilt patterns in it. I am not knowledgeable enough to know all of the various patterns, but I am so impressed that the illustrator was able to incorporate them:
I haven't tried to find all of them yet, but there is an answer at www.QuiltmakersGift.com.
Yesterday, I went with my friend Celia for a minor procedure and tried to retell this story to take her mind off of what the doctor was doing and the time passed very quickly.
Candice was home for the day, so sleep was a non-entity for me, as I worked "extra" on Thursday night. Catie called yesterday, so I almost felt like the whole family was together. Chuck and I both went to bed at 8:30 and I slept until 8:30 this morning and only woke up because he woke me up. Therefore, I will not have a good nap before work tonight. I am supposed to go to a scrap booking crop at church, so I will see how I feel at that time.
We are going to work on the hutch for the kitchen more today, grocery shop and do a little housework.
Tomorrow the kiddies trick or treat, so will have to post some cuties then....

A little project today

I am working on the project day quilt, which took me almost 4 hours today. I am so glad I didn't put the whole thing off until the day of, or else I would have been very frustrated with how little would get accomplished.
While running the machine I made a little something:This was a little kit I won at the brown bag auction last night. I can't stand that it is so crooked, but it has a magnet on the back and is hanging on the fridge in the kitchen, so I am prepared for it to get kind of dirty.
Off to bed for my daily nap before working tonight. It's gonna be difficult as I slept for about 10 hours last night and am not in the least bit sleepy.

Brown bag auction

Last night our quilt guild had one of the biggest money makers for the year: a brown bag auction. For 15.00 I got 40 tickets and put them in the brown bag for the items that I wanted to win. It was a hoot.
I have so little that I can give up, since I have been at this for only about 5 years, but I came up with a few things that would have otherwise gone to the Good Will.
I was in a "Round Robin" at a quilt shop in Woodstock a few years ago. I bought 15 yards of fabric, with plans on making a summer quilt for our bed. Since starting that, we have gotten a king sized bed and I found out I will need 35 blocks to make the finished quilt. It is in my to-do pile.
These are the blocks that were returned to me. Now you have to play the game like on Sesame Street, "One of these things just doesn't belong here, one of these things is not quite the same"(or something like that, it's been about 18 years since being a faithful viewer)...Did you pick the embroidered block in the third row up??? Then you win!!! I think that embroidery machines are fine for the people who like them, but not for me. (Oh man, I sound like a liberal politician)
The colors don't go with the muted Civil War prints that I chose, and I don't even think I could make a pillow out of it, so it went to the brown bag auction. I also added 3 very ugly prints and a panel from the 1980's. Very pastel, very kitchy, very not like me. I noticed that there were no tickets in the bags, which is fine by me, because no one knew that I brought them and they didn't come home with me!!!

These blocks were to be 12 inches finished, but because of the skill level of some of the creators, they didn't end up that way. So I have some work to do, probably when I go to retreat in February.
My fabulous wins at the auction:
Most of it I really wanted to win. I got a Mary Martin book, a basket full of old quilt magazines, a bundle of 1/2 yard Moda prints (I found out they were 1/2 yards when I got home!!), an 18 inch quilt hoop, two large African prints (Chuck said they look more Mexican or Caribbean than African, but I think they are African), and the crowning achievement, which almost all 60 people wanted is a queen sized batting, with a value of almost 40.00. It was like Christmas!!!
Celia's wins, of which I will only show you the highlights, because she won more than I took pictures of:


This is the first thing she won, and I was so jealous, but I smiled when she got back to her chair and said, "I said that if I won it I would share it with you, because I knew you wanted it" It is 8 yards of a gorgeous yellow and blue toile, with a value in today's fabric prices of about 72.00. She will probably only use a small portion of it because she is an art quilter. I think it would make a great backing.
She really wanted this basket of lace. We saw an artist in Madison that hand dyed laces and used them in art quilts, so I know what Celia is thinking.

This is what she really wanted more than anything. It is like ancient Greek figures with other fabric with writing on it. She is so excited. Well, to each his own. (There goes that liberal thinking again) To be honest, if all artists did the same thing, wouldn't it be a boring world???
On to my creative space!!!!!

Fabric Challenge

On November 8th, our little informal quilt group is having our quarterly project day. I have participated in 2 of these since joining this little group. Usually, someone chooses a pattern and you get it prior to the day so you can purchase fabrics to fit that pattern and then spend the day sewing. It's fun to see how many different projects can come out of one pattern with other fabrics. This day will be different in that we are all using the same fabric, in other words, a fabric challenge. I have had it for about a month and have been looking at patterns and trying to decide what to do with it. This has been more than a challenge for me since I am such a pattern follower.
This is the fabric. Isn't it pretty??
Because I am hosting and not wanting to hog the cutting table or the ironing board. I did some pre-cutting yesterday and will do some pre-sewing today. I am so glad that I cut yesterday, because after doing so, this is all of the fabric that was left:
3/4 of an inch!!! but not all in one piece.
Here is a hint of what I will be doing....not giving too much away:
More to come after November 8th...

Another aspect of my life

I was very excited because it seemed like I would have a Saturday night at home, but alas, I was called in to work at 11 pm. It was an easy night, but I had obligations at church on Sunday morning, so couldn't go to bed when I got home.
Yesterday, I was in the nursery. We always have a great time, but man, am I tired afterwards. The kids are so fun and there was a children's sermon yesterday, so we spent the first 20 minutes with the big folks. That was a challenge, but I think the kids have to realize that they will soon be a part of grown up worship. After all, church isn't all fun and games....
We colored....
We went to the "store" and bought "groceries", and then we had a "meal".
We played, and played and played.....
Then, the crowning achievement was a puppet show with 3 humans and six puppets on stage at once. Far too many, I fear.

The other way I serve right now is on the worship team, which I really enjoy. I am "on" about every 2-3 months for about 6 weeks, which is fine by me. I have found, that because I am not singing on a regular basis, it is a real strain on my voice and I am usually hoarse for a few hours afterwards. I know that is because I am not singing correctly, and I try, but I have forgotten all of the things I learned in the past when I sang on a twice weekly basis.
This is during practice, I don't usually sing without shoes. The jury is out on that orange dress. It was a hot day.....
Today I have to get ready for my small group and finish the weekly things to do around the house. I'm not sure I will have time for everything, but I will try.

The "Mundane-ness" of Life

Growing up, there were rules about when you could play. By play, I mean probably TV watching or playing checkers or a table game. But life on the farm left very little time for that stuff. All chores, homework, dishes, weed pulling, laundry folding, etc had to be finished for the day before any fun stuff could happen. I never wanted to follow the same stringent thinking in my adult life, when I was in charge, but it has. I won't allow myself to sit at my sewing table, or watch my recorded shows, or play on the computer until the things that I had planned for the day are underway. Today, I really needed to clean the main level of our house, because I am supposed to work tonight and my small group is coming over on Monday night. Well, that left no time for play....
While Beryl and I were taking care of mom for 7 weeks this summer we also adopted this philosophy. Playing for us was usually sew time, but before we could to that, we had to have all three meals planned, housework done, laundry done and mom bathed. Also, there was a bit of outside work for almost every day. That took us to about 3 in the afternoon. Many days we would forgo a shower just so we could spend an hour or two sewing. We generally sewed when mom was taking her afternoon nap.
On another note:
I really do love fall as I said yesterday; the colors, the crisp air, the beautiful sunsets, the moon, and the wonderful apples. One thing I detest about fall is the leaves in our backyard. I know, they crunch when you walk on them and they are pretty when they flutter to the ground, but in our yard, they are a nuisance. We have 7 mature Oak trees in our backyard and one in the front and they produce a massive amount of leaves.
Here is the backyard before Chuck cleaned it up this morning:
Now look how many leaves are left in the tree that has the fewest leaves left!!!!
I guess I could stand in the yard and catch them before they hit the ground...
Here's how nice it looked about 1/2 hour after he was done:
Do you see how there are already leaves??? By Monday it will look just like the before picture.

Phase 2 of the weekend project:
It's gettin' pretty, huh?
While cleaning the kitchen today, I took a good look at my milk can and realized it was stuck in a time warp, so it, too is undergoing a transformation. I painted it back in the 80's and stenciled it, but I have outgrown the look. My dad gave it to us about 20 years ago.
More to come on Tindell sprucing up.
I was just cancelled for my job!!! That means a Saturday night at home to play, watch game 7 for AL championship and go to bed at a decent hour.