August OMG Finish

Here is my One Monthly Goal - which was to top stitch the blocks of Christmas Card Quilt.  

After all the blocks were put together I needed to top stitch the stars that overlapped the borders.  

As I was ironing and stitching them I found a couple other areas I missed.  The blue on the dolly dress...

One of the "N's"  

Okay now all done.  I was hoping to get the last two borders on which includes more overlapping stars... but time is running out.  I accomplished what I set out to do for the month, so now it's time o link it up to Elm Street Quilts One Monthly Goal . 

Now head over there and look at all the other finishes.
Blessings, 
Lynn 

Weekly Check In

 This has been a different kinda month - very busy, but not all sewing.  Thankfully I did just have a 3 1/2 day quilting retreat.  I am now home and I did get a lot done so I am happy about that. 
I'll post more about that in a few, but I wanted to share a little of what else has been going on.  
As I stated in my last post we picked up my brother in law around midnight Sunday going into Monday and we were all tired and laid low Monday.  Frank headed over to other brother Ron's house to visit them and see their Mom.  I fused the Welcome sign and then did some hand stitching on a very old UFO. This is my oldest UFO, and I have it 95% done.  It is a quilt as you go that I started back in 2009 or 2010, I'll have to look that up, but all that needs to be done is to hand sew the back where the blocks come together 

Tuesday I am not even sure where the morning went. Hubby and I did our workouts, I did a little more hand stitching and then we ran a couple errands before his afternoon doctors appointment. Hubby had to get a new Doctor because his last one (and 4 before that) have done their residency and then left. That ended up being very entertaining.  While he was having his test, a lady got very dramatic about how she thought she wasn't getting the care she thought she should.  She ended up calling 911 from he doctors office and 8 paramedics showed up to take her daughter with a hurt leg to the hospital.  WOW.  It was different for sure.
Wednesday the 3 brothers got up early and played golf.  I put on a pot of beans to cook in the crock pot, made some chili sauce to go with it and then made breakfast burrito's for them to eat while I was at the retreat.  

Who wants to guess if they lasted until the retreat started.  
So Thursday we went around 3:30 and set up and sewed until around 6:30.  Friday the guys were golfing again and then I got ready and headed to the retreat. 
It was our 22nd anniversary - we got a lot of well wishes from the kids and our friends.  We'll do a dinner some other time to celebrate but really we were both doing what we love to do, and we know how special each of us are to each other so it was okay. 
We got our little welcome gifts two little bags.  

 Cute huh? 
Here are my friends.  Cheryl is across from me.  

Dawn was across and to the left.

Vickie is beyond Dawn.

Gloria was sitting across from Vickie I didn't get her picture.

Jean (in the stripes) was to my right - Judy and Barb came to visit. 

Katie and Susie were sitting beyond Jean. I didn't get their picture. 

Liz and Ann were behind us.  They are from California and we have a blast with them.  

 Here's more of the room - pretty much looks the same as it always does.  

This whole retreat was to do the top stitching on my Christmas Quilt.  

There is a big BBQ at Ron's house Saturday afternoon/evening, so I went shopping after the retreat on Friday and came home and made a bucket of salad.  Laugh if you will but there are some husky guys in this crowd.  

At the retreat on Saturday I kept working on the top stitching going color by color.  I was able to finish the bear welcome sign. I'll show some pictures of that later. 

Then they had show and tell - I took the bear quilt. Kevin one of the retreat organizers is very tall he helped hold it up so I could finally get a good picture of it. 

The BBQ started later than expected so I had Cheryl drop me off there so I could make an appearance.  It was somewhat of a family reunion all the brothers were together at the same time with Mom for the first time in 5 years.   Happy Mom. 

I am horrible at selfies but here are a couple with me and my Sister in law Casey (Ron's wife)  and then me with Frank (left) and Anthony. 

Sunday at the retreat - I was able to finish up the rest of the top stitching in the blocks - and sew them together. That actually satisfies my One Monthly goal but I will iron and get a better picture and make a separate post for that. 

Sunday night we all went to dinner at the Riverside Buffet - here is my Niece Brandi and her boyfriend Andy. 

The guys got up early and golfed again today and then I made them a big breakfast when they came home.  We are all pretty beat after the late nights and getting up early.  So for the next day or two we are going to try and take it somewhat easy.   Towards the middle of the week we have a few things going on again so a short rest tomorrow will be good. 

Going to try and finish up a couple of things before the month is over... I know not much time.  So I'll let you know how I do.  

Have a Blessed evening - 

Lynn 

Not A Lot A Sew'n

Yes I'm sure that I have entered the twilight zone.  It's been over a week since my last post and I'm not sure what I've done.  It's almost scary that I had to go back to my daily calendar and figure it out.  :) :( 
Okay now that I've had the confession hour - I did get the last couple of blocks fused for the "Christmas Card" quilt. 

I am taking this to the retreat that starts on the 22nd to do the top stitching.  It was my One Monthly goal so I better get going on it.  :)

So where has the week gone... little things here and there and then the day/week is done.  

Monday I fused the blocks. 

Tuesday we cleaned our carpets. They look so nice now. 

Wednesday - Hubby had a Dr. appointment then golfed. I cleaned up all the scraps of fabric I had laid out everywhere for the applique in my sewing room.

Thursday - Hubby had a blood work and another test, then we went to breakfast and we napped in afternoon. 

Friday was charity day at the cottage, and then some hand stitching  Saturday was our monthly Saturday sew we have, and we invited a couple of new people since a few ladies have dropped out - 

Meet Sandi

We like her a lot and just found out after only being here for a couple of years she is probably moving to PA.  :(

Meet Beverly - she was the sweet lady that brought Ice Cream for the Pizza party for my grandson.

This month our theme was sandwich fixin's and salad.  Yummy.  

We set up our next few months of dates and themes.  In September we are going to have Fall type foods.  Annette offered to make Butternut Squash soup.  

October will be Halloweenish finger foods.   Fun.

Sunday was cleaning day - hubby's brother was coming in on the train at midnight so needed to finalize all the cleaning for his visit.  

We also did some grocery shopping and errands. 

We napped of course any other night we could stay up but when you know you have to be awake at midnight.  LOL

Monday again - we were all pretty tired.  Hubby golfed, Frank went over to their other brothers house and swam and visited and I did a little bit of this and that.  Worked with computer,  cooked dinner, and fused a cute wall hanging that I'm giving to my Sister and Brother in law to go with the bear quilt. 

It's a surprise - if I can keep it a secret.  

Well with the retreat coming up I also packed my small machine up and put some other things in the bag to work on.  I always pack enough projects to last me 3 weeks and there are only 4 days.  Ha ha.  

Retreat starts Thursday afternoon.  There are a couple errands to run and of course I'll do some cooking for Jer (Hubby) and Frank his brother to have while I'm gone but then I'll be there and having fun.  

I'll try to update you before I go but if not - I'll show you the projects and their progress later.  

Have a Blessed Day!

Lynn 

Small Road Trip

Yesterday was a beautiful day and a much needed break from our last week of house projects.  I told my girl friend Cheryl that I would accompany her to Lake Havasu to drop some stuff off at one of the quilt shops down there.  The owner is actually the one that is putting on the retreat that I'm going to in a week and a half.  Wow it is sneaking up on me. It was a beautiful day out and a great opportunity to treat my friend to lunch for her up coming birthday, which is the 19th of this month.  I let her pick and so she suggested a place called Shugrue's.  It's a steak house and looks like a real fancy place, but prices weren't all that different than any other sit down restaurant.  It's on the west side of the London Bridge and offered a really nice view. 

We both had one of the lunch specials called a Summer Breeze Salad. 

It was my first experience of eating "Kale".  It was mixed in with all the other greens so I didn't notice it too much, however even  when pulling a piece out and eating it I didn't think it was bad.  I'll give it another try for sure.  The salad was loaded with greens, broccoli, apple pieces, strawberry slices, candied walnuts, white raisins, cranberry's, cucumber, tomato, grilled chicken and I'm sure more.  It was awesome.   It was served with an almond cherry muffin.  Yummy!

Here are some view once we came out.  

Okay so what happened at the quilt shop.  I was very good.  I only picked up a couple of things I needed to finish a couple of quilts.  
I got this light green fabric to go on the back of my embroidery frog quilt, here it is paired with the binding fabric. 

I also got some fabric for sashing and borders for my Daisy Day's embroidery quilt. 

Since I just want this to be a wall hanging, I'm not going to do the setting blocks that were offered in the pattern. Instead, the red and white polka dot will be the sashing and the red daisy will be the border.  It looks like it was made just for these blocks.   

That's all I got.  It was a fun day for sure.  We finished off the day doing a little driving around looking at stuff while on our way back home.  It's good to have good friends. 

Have a Blessed Day!

Lynn 

Fixing Up Week

Our home is a bit of a fixer upper, so every few months we take on a project or two.  This last week we did some painting, of the kitchen and guest bathroom. 

They were previously a cream color and with the light paneling it was just too washed out.  Here's the before - 

So I like the gray much better.

We also replaced some of the corner molding in the kitchen and dinning room along with the floor molding pieces.  They were split and in need of TLC.  Here is the new molding we went with. 

And the big project we tackled was the bathroom in our garage. We replaced the flooring and baseboard molding.  As you can see it was also in need of some TLC.  Here's the before - 

First we had to demo.  

Which as you can see involved removing the toilet. Once we got all the old torn out, it was time to clean and start with the new.  

Here's the Work In Progress picture - 

And here are some of the finished pictures - 

 And here is the utility area leading into that bathroom.

That wraps it up for now.  In all of this there was a lot of running around getting parts and supplies.  We had to make a couple trips to Kingman to get some supplies and return some and then several trips to Lowe's and Home Depot along with a couple trips to some cabinet and counter top stores.  That being said, we have a couple other items that are in the cue to get done Kitchen countertop, new sink and faucet, but waiting for quotes.  

So I'm off the hook for now and can get back to some sewing.  I went to Lake Havasu with my friend yesterday , but I'll post about that later. 

Have a blessed day - 

Lynn