Cells

I have a very resorcefull child, these are her cell projects for 6th grade science. The green one is plant and the brown is animal. She came up with this on her own, after helping with three other of these projects I told the last kid to do it herself. (really she didn't ask for help, all I said was "put foil in my pie plates") her grade on the project was great and I'm really proud of her for getting it done 3 days before it was due.......just wish she would of remembered to take it to school and not have to call dad and have him bring it that morning!

I have the day off so I'm going to town to the post office (I have a heck of a time getting there) and I'm going to drop off library books. I read Meg Burden's Northlander last week. Megan lives around here and she is a sweet gal, I was impressed with the book. It's a teen fiction, I'm going to buy it and send it to Kristin, I enjoyed it and it was soooooooooooooo much better than that teen romance Twilight etc. that thing was so mushy and if I had to read 'oh he's soooo beautiful 'one more time I think I would of thrown up! Megan's book has a strong lead character and I am impressed there is no cussing, and not any romance to speak of, I am also impressed with her flow of words, not sure how to phrase it but her sentences were very descriptive. I'm looking forward to the next book!

St. James

Today I'm off to St. James with my FCE group. It's been a long time since the group has had an outing and I'm excited. Ok I'm not excited about the ride there(1.5 hours) because I didn't sleep with this headache and backache. Already been in the hot tub and heading to the shower after eating a hand full of aspirin. St. James used to be a dormitory/school and now its a marketplace. Today is their fall harvest festival. I'm taking some crochet along to do on the ride up there, I have yarn for Special Olympics Scarf Project. (someday I will take time to learn how to link on this blog but not this morning)

I got 16 pint and 4 half pint of jalapeno pepper's canned Friday night, tried to kill my mom with the fumes when she brought Josh home, sorry mom! Kev said he's gonna enjoy eating them this winter, I told him he had to eat a jar and a half a month. He didn't think I was funny and told me I was crazy.

I got 4 green centered blocks done for Heartstrings Yahoo Group done also, they look just like the last one's I did, they are having a block party this weekend and lots of people are sewing string blocks for it, I knew I had to work and would be gone today so I did mine a little earlier in the week. I also got a customer quilt done, it was a T-shirt quilt for a cop, interesting T's.

oh I cant tell I feel lousy, spellcheck really had to work alot on this post!

Husker bags

Read this post sideways because I'm to lazy to turn my pic's......

I got all three of the bags done promised to a gal at work, I'm happy with the results, I like them both better than mine and the 3rd one is already delivered so no pic.

Care Package

A movie, candy to eat while watching the movie, and slippers to keep her feet warm while eating the candy watching the movie, what more could a college student want?She even called me today to thank me, what more could a mom want?

Jars

Ok the kids are gonna be mad that I'm in here messing around while they finish the jars, oh well! I am thinking it's funny that they really don't complain while I'm inside, only when I go out to help them so I am staying out of the way. They think I'm doing dishes or something.......

gonna find my camera

gonna find my camera, the kids are on the deck dumping out fruit jars, my sister-in-law is moving and she brought me jars. The last time I did a mass dumping was almost 19 years ago when I was pregnant with Kristin, Kev carried the jars out of the cave and I sat in a lawn chair and dumped. He then took the buckets to the cattle yard. I felt bad dumping all his grandma's hard work but in 1990 I didn't want to be eating things from 1976 and before. It's time to reuse these jars also as most are dated 1989 and before. I love putting my farm kids to work, they're not complaining to much yet! gonna go find my camera....

Long days

This time of the year I spend long days in the kitchen. Tomato's have kept me busy and now I'm moving on to apples and pears. Tonight I got 3 quart and 1 pint of spaghetti sauce canned and 3 batches of jelly. Wild plum and mixed (apple, pear and plum). Last night my sister-in-law came down and we did 9 pint and 5 quart of pears so I had pear and apple juice from that. We got 6 pints of applesauce done too. Yesterday the guys finished the hog they butchered on Saturday. I am the official wrapper. There was over 50 pounds of sausage made. I have apple pear butter to make yet, hot peppers to can and a bushel of apples on my kitchen floor. I also got over a 5 gallon bucket of pears to do but they will wait a couple of days, not truly ripe yet. My friend Linda gave me the apples and pears, they are beautiful! She has 6 or 8 trees and they all did fantastic this year, her garage floor is covered in pears! I will be picking the last of the tomato's tomorrow or the next day, I think I'm the only one left in the country with tomato's, I got mine in so late that they are coming on late now.

Whats going on around here.

It's been a long week, Josh has hives and bronchitis, I took him to the emergency room last night, and back to the doctor today. They don't know whats causing it so they are treating with lots of drugs. We had planned to go to Hastings for Kev's bi-monthly meeting, plans cancelled. I canned tomato's and sauces all day, still have two batches to finish. I've resorted to stealing(with permission) jars out of my mother-in-laws fruit room. I worked yesterday and tonight I have an extra kid around, her parents are dealing with friends funeral's. There was an accident on a construction site that took four lives last week. My friend Dawn, her daughter lives in Beaumont Texas, they just got back from evacuation to learn her apartment is not livable, she has to move out, she was lucky in that her building held strong and only her kitchen ceiling collapsed. She is on the way to Houston to stay at her boyfriends apartment, still no power there and a long drive to work. Like I said it's been a long week........

Blackie is a girl!

Kev watched the goats on my deck for quite awhile before he caught her sleeping......goats are fast! Everyone had to pet her before turning her loose, she is really cute! I am getting tired of having them sleep on my deck though, they poop a lot! Kev took the power washer to it and the sidewalk but they just got out of their fence and came right back to the deck. I do enjoy watching them play in the yard.

Homecoming 2008

Josh and Miss T represented their class at the homecoming festivities last Thursday night, I think they looked great! Josh is not happy about being part of it all but he behaved well and I couldn't ask for more. They won the games Friday night and my boys went to church camp and had a great time seeing their friends from summer. Camp was more fun than homecoming they assured me.

Christmas String Swap

I got two sets done to send out for the Christmas String Block Swap on Stashbuilders, I am keeping the ones laid out in the pic, last time I sent blocks I didn't get any of my own back so this time I made myself a few to keep. I already used a bunch of these in my 80's cat quilt. I am tired of these so I am only trading two sets this time, they will turn into table runners or I will add them to a larger project. Maybe Kev will sell them on my auction someday, who knows....

Green for Guys

Green for Guys is the theme this month for Heartstrings Yahoo Group. I love when they have themes for string projects, it gets me motivated to do a few blocks and send off to the 'block mom'. I love this group in that no matter what your skill level is or what amount of time or resources you have you can help and make a difference. This month they are collecting string blocks with green centers. Keeping in mind that these quilts will be sort of masculine I kept the flowers out of my blocks for the most part and only slipped a little pink in. I got 8 blocks done and they are on the way to Minnesota!

Corn

I'm tired of corn, my hand hurts and my fingernails are weak from all the water. Don and I picked a half of a small pickup load yesterday, this morning Mom woke me up before 9:30 and we shucked it all. She left after 2 hours and I hauled it into the house and started cleaning and cutting. Brad and Sara had to help me finish it this evening. There is 17 bags of corn on the cob (10 ears in each bag) and 20 quart bags of cut corn. My mother-in-law always said put up enough for a year, a bag a week. I think I have 52 bags around here in 3 different freezers. I am sending some of the ear corn to Dawn's, her family loves it and I'm going to need the freezer room for other things. I'm stocking up for winter, got the foraging urge. Now if I can get to the green beans, tomato's and pears......

Beautiful Morning

It's a beautiful morning here in Nebraska.........I love rain and cool weather. This means my studio is gonna be great for quilting if I ever get out there. I have quilts waiting for me but I might be doing corn instead. I'm waiting for a call on that. I also have a garden full of tomato's waiting....tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow. I was hoping to find a few more peppers to make another batch of salsa but no such luck so plain old tomato preserves is what they will have to be. I have no umph so this is gonna be an interesting day. I'm hoping the caffeine kicks in soon!

Husker Schlep Bag

This is my Husker Schelp Bag, I used Kristin's old jeans and Husker fabric meant for the back of a quilt. I didn't have any black so the one side is really busy with just the two different Husker fabric's. I will carry it with the denim on the outside , I like that side better I think. I used 6" squares so it's tote bag size. I thought since I work every Saturday during the game I could make a bag to carry and be supportive of the Husker's.

I am really happy with the way these pic's turned out, I think this will be my new pic taking spot in front of the Locust tree beside the house. I took pic's of the bags inside and then deleted them when I saw them on the computer, I didn't need a pic of the back of my door and the cobweb there reminding me to clean house more often.

Sara, Mom and I set up quilt frames in Neligh tonight, I took a few quilts and Sara took her Halloween quilt. I think they will have a nice show and I will head back tomorrow evening to pick up the frames. Don't think I will make it to the show itself, working in the middle of the day kind of puts a halt to running off to a quilt/craft show.

Schlep Bags

Mom and I had a sewing day last Monday, it was really fun. I got these bags done for the girls and me, the cream one is made with 5" charm squares, it's smaller than the other two. The pink and yellow one is for Kristin and Sara claimed the bright one with frogs for herself. I used Kristin's old jeans for the other side of the bags, won't she be surprised when she comes home this weekend to find she has no old jeans to wear....hehehehe! Just Sew Friends was having a bag challenge so mom and I thought it would be a great together project, her bag can be seen at her blog flicshasews.blogspot.com

Christmas Cat Quilt

Sneak peak at the Christmas Cat Quilt 1980's style.....early 80's judging by the fabrics. I found the cat fabric at the Salvation Army and thought it would be perfect with the string blocks I was making for the swap, I can't pass up cat fabric, especially Christmas Cat fabric. In fact Kristin tells me it's a sickness, this Christmas Cat fabric thing....I'm addicted! I used the tree skirt shape for the border, just trimmed off the scalloped edge and it worked great. The quilt is now at the binding fairy's, I'm sure she's just thrilled(not).

Tonight

Tonight I am quilting for other people. I have the wedding quilt for next weekend done and soon will be doing the machine binding. I have another one for the same gal so I will probably do that tomorrow and deliver them both at the same time. I think I will put the second quilt in the frame tonight so it's ready in the morning, maybe I will be inspired to do it early that way. I am also working on one of the baby quilts I made a pattern for, testing the results again. This time it's fire trucks for a boy quilt. I went to my favorite quilt shop today and wandered around, not much new besides some cat print in the sale room I didn't buy........I'm thinking a trip back next week to get some will be in order. I know mom would go with me some morning if I actually get around to going. I put up quilt frames in Neligh tomorrow night and work Saturday at the bar during the Nebraska game, that should be interesting.......I'm not a big football fan so it won't be hard for me to work thru the game. Ok back to the studio to finish that baby quilt.

Christmas String Blocks

Told ya I had more of that 80's Christmas fabric.......these are 4 of the set of 12 I have done for a block exchange on Stashbuilder's Yahoo Group. I really have 20 some more of these done but I liked them so much I put together a quilt with them so I had to make more for the swap. I love doing string blocks, and they make such cool quilts when finished. I still have half a box of these Christmas fabrics left, not sure what they will turn into next, I'm hoping to get the quilt in the frame sometime this week but it's not looking to promising since I have quilt frames to put up Friday night and I have to work on Saturday. I should get busy and quilt some customer quilts too!

Stockings for Troops

A gal on Heartstrings Yahoo Group makes and collects Christmas Stockings for US troops stationed overseas. They also fill the stockings with goodies. I thought it was an awesome project so I whipped up 7 stockings. The fabric is vintage 1980's, someone gave me a bunch of unsewn tree skirts(I think there was enough cut for 40 skirts!!!!) so I cut it up and used it in stockings. I also used it in other things..........more pic's coming!

Ready for Halloween

Guess we're ready for Halloween at our house. I made this last year during a sewing day with mom and Sara. I finally got around to quilting it and mom finished the binding for me last week. I decided everyone needs a Halloween quilt in our house so that's another goal for this year. This little quilt will hang on the wall somewhere. Sara's quilt is done, Kristin don't want one(she's not here anyway) and I have fabric for Josh's. Brad is a little harder to pick things out for so I will keep looking for his fabric.