What’s Up with That?

I’ve always found it very enjoyable to sit down and write a post for my blog.   From that statement you might then ask the question:  why don’t you write more often???  You might also ask, which came first, the chicken or the egg??  Well, boys & girls, the answer is simple and the same for each question – I DON’T KNOW!!!!  Of course you also have to realize that there is very little in my life worth writing about.  Altho now that I think about it, most of my posts are about nothing at all.  Obviously, this will never be turned into an autobiographical book.  Or any kind of book.  Oh, geez, ya, I’d really LOVE to write a book.  I sat down with pen in hand one day to begin.  I was like Snoopy sitting on top of his doghouse typing out – “it was a dark & stormy night.”  After that I was stuck.  I couldn’t think of a darn thing and gave it up as a lost cause.  If you want to send me a story idea………I could add at least a paragraph to it!

Now that I’ve explained my long absence……ahem, we’ll move right along.  :)

Let me begin by sharing our winter house project.  Known affectionately (or not) as the “shower from hell”.  Pardon my language.  Our bathroom had a bathtub with a shower.  It had tile surrounding it.  Some tiles began to come loose – and then more & more.  The cause was a handicap bar we’d installed when I was recovering from “the incident”.  Long story short, we needed to re-do.  As all good projects go we decided to make  it all BETTER.  Are you loving it so far?  Me too.  Since we don’t use the tub, we might as well remove it and it will become a nice, large shower.  YEAH! 

I’ll skip thru a whole bunch of really interesting stuff here that would bore you (huh?).  We got out our tool belts and hammers, screwdrivers, hand saws, power saws, chop saws, drills, sanders, squares, tape measures, and well, nearly every tool we own.  We do this because whenever we tackle a building project we call in “Close Enough Construction”.  That’s us.  In addition to that we run to town at least once a day until project completion for something we don’t have.  Can anyone relate?  So once the dust has settled, it looks like this:

Left side:

Right side:

One of the sad/funny things about it is in the instructions it says that this can be completed in a weekend.  HA!  Someone should call the better business bureau for false advertising.  Well, it’s done and we love it!  If I host a “shower open-house”, do you think it’s ok to ask people to bring their own towel?

Last Saturday was our monthly Prairie Women’s Sewing Circle group, sponsored by Farmhouse Woolens.  Per usual, a good time was had by all.  I cannot imagine a group of ladies who would be more fun to work with.  It’s sorta like having a 2-year old around and if there’s a moment of silence, you get real nervous.  I am not saying they act like 2-year olds!  Sheesh.  But there are no moments of silence!  Here’s what they made last month:

They are the sweetest little table runners called Seneca Falls.

Oh – Oh – Oh.  Miracles do happen.  I got something for Valentines day:

Wasn’t that nice?  I gave him a card.  Yes, I talking about my husband! 

OK, what else?  I belong to an organization that provides services to help mainly senior citizens stay in their homes instead of needing assisted living or a nursing home.  It’s a great organization and well worth supporting.  They’ve had an annual Tour of Tables event for their main fundraiser for a number of years.  This year we are using Alice in Wonderland as our theme and have asked each table hostess to decorate to represent a children’s book or nursery rhyme. 

I had to go to eBay but I found vintage-looking Alice in Wonderland fabric ---

So I ordered a yard.  Then I wondered what to do with it.  Here’s what I did:

    I really need to tell you that the quilt is straight & square.  It looks like it’s curved at the top but it’s just the way I pinned it to the wall.  Honest.  It really is straight.  I promise.  Really.

And, of course, minkee on the back so it’s snuggly soft for baby.  I also had a couple motif leftovers so will sew up a simple pillow to go with it using the green border fabric and minkee.

We’ll announce the raffle winner on April 9th at the Tour of Tables.

I missed going to Loose Threads this week but I’m hoping to be able to share pictures with you (if someone shares with me) as I know there was some good show & tell.

I do have a full-time job now so I may have less time than ever to write. 

What?  I need to clarify full-time?  Ya, ya, ok then.  I work 1 day a week.  But that’s a LOT, don’t you think?  My lovely and talented boss is none other than Kari Carr – New Leaf Stitches.  You can check out her patterns & notions on her website.  I’m trying very hard to be on my very best behavior while I’m at work.  It’s hard to be Faye.

 

Talkin’ Dirty (G-rated)

Romance?  Passion?  Fantasies?  No. 

FARMING?  YES!!!!

Dirty?  Absolutely!

The past 2 years I’ve been whining about how wet it was for harvest.  This year was as close to perfect as it’s gonna get and this year we actually saw “dust”!!! 

Apparently, someone else noticed a tiny bit of whining.  How do I know?  She gave me a bottle of this for my birthday-----

What’s so great about a bottle of wine?  Read the label a little closer:

 What’s your point?????

So here’s what I spent about 100 hours looking at:

 

Sugarbeets in the front

 

 

 

 

Sugar-beets in the back

 

 

 

 

Sugarbeets under my wheels:

 

 

 

Here are some action shots of me steering the tractor:

 

 

Look Ma, no hands!!!

 

 

 

Oh gosh!  I need to move an inch to the left! 

 

 

Honestly.  My tractor was equipped with a satellite system called Auto Steer.  When the field is planted, Mr. Farmer enters the latitude & longitude &  his height & weight and what he had for dinner.  Or something.  Wa-la, straight rows.  So when I start the harvest rolling, all I need are the coordinate numbers, pull into the row, push a couple buttons and we’re off.  On a mile-long field, I can really read a lot of pages in my favorite novel.  It beeps once at the end of the row so I know to put down the book and make the turn.  The stress is HORRIBLE!!! 

Sugarbeets are planted in rows 22” apart.  The tires are about 20”.  The GPS is accurate to about 3”.  So you see, SOMETIMES, the wheels would be a tish off and the picture above shows me pushing the button to move the tractor over 1”.  Again, STRESS!  It’s a wonder I survived.

This is what’s called a buddy seat for when you need to bring  your child along?  It’s also where our dog Baxter sometimes sat. 

Unfortunately he also sometimes wanted to sit on my lap.  I had to banish him from my tractor because he kept hitting the controls.

I sat in this Captain Kirk type ergonomic, swivel chair that had many of the controls right on the arm rest. 

Here is a picture of hubby loading one of the trucks.

 

And here is hubby and Baxter – taking a nap?  what the heck?  No, I’m sure they were working.  Don’t you think?

After reading all that, don’t you feel dirty? 

 

Prairie Women’s Sewing Circle – This monthly club is one that I lead for Karen at Farmhouse Woolens and Dry Goods.  I would like to say that I teach it but there’s very little teaching going on but there sure is a lot of laughter.

Here’s a picture of me with part of the group.  I’m standing toward the right side in white not teaching:

I have cleverly put them all to work with needle & thread which cuts down on the amount of grief they can throw my way.  To tell you the truth, I can’t imagine a better and more fun group of women.  How lucky I am!!

We’ve just had our 2nd club meeting with 4 more to go.  Mostly we’ll do miniatures and this is the 1st month project that they all brought back finished.  They all turned out different and that makes it so fun….. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

Isn’t that Ms. Neecie showing us how to turn a miniature into a super-miniature? 

Now this is a gal who is always marching to the beat of a different drummer.  And I’m so glad because it’s absolutely wonderful Neecie!  You inspire us to challenge ourselves…….

What were some of your favorite Halloween costumes from your youth (5 years ago)?  Or from your kids?  I remember one year when my daughter was about 9 or 10 and our son was about 2 or 3.  I turned them into Raggedy Ann and Andy.  OMG, they were so cute!  I think Ann’s hair was a mop head dyed red.  Apparently it was hot & hard to keep on her head.  She had a high-waisted skirt & blouse, big red circles on her cheeks and freckles on her nose.  Little “Andy” had pants and suspenders and I don’t remember the rest of his costume.  One year our 2 boys were the Lone Ranger & Tonto.  This involved them each wearing boxes with horse-like spots on them and reins toward the horse’s head.  Cowboy boots & hats and I think that also involved 6-shooters….Oh, yeah, remember being a pair of dice?   Well there are a lot of really cute costumes that you can buy now – not the plastic masks of my youth – but I still like the ones we made at home the very best.  I got to thinking about costumes because Raggedy Andy aka the Lone Ranger aka one dice aka out oldest son and his lovely wife stopped here just now on their way to a Halloween party.  I totally CANNOT believe he was convinced to dress in costume but here they are as Paul Bunyon and Babe (the blue ox):

  If Fleet Farm doesn’t have it, you don’t need it – right RJ?  Even the cowbell around  “Babe’s” neck came from Fleet Farm.  Too bad all you town ladies don’t have access to Fleet Farm.  It’s the Niemen Marcus for farm folk!!  LOL

And check out what “Babe” (the blue ox) brought me:

Happy Fall y’all -

Time Flies

Tick, tock says the little old clock on the wall.  I wonder if time has flown by for this clock or if it drags a little sometimes?  

The Loose Threads – including myself - saw this great clock in Ruby’s Cafe in Ashby last week.  The clock hasn’t moved from the wall for years & years.  The bottom part has an ad for the local bank from years ago that rolled to a new message every few seconds.  Awesome!  And check out the retro sign below:

We Threads decided to start our day at Ruby’s for a bit of a bite of breakfast.  As a quilt group we are strangely all about the food.  :)  We were all terribly upset to learn that the homemade caramel rolls weren’t ready.  You sophisticated folk won’t understand this, you gotta be country – but the gal who was making the rolls used to be the person making those very same rolls at the Rothsay Truck Stop.  “Truck stop” doesn’t sound exactly like haute cuisine but I’m here to say that those rolls were famous for miles around.  People would get up dag-blame early on Sunday mornings just to get their hands on some rolls to take home.  Sometimes a person would be too late and was scared to go home empty handed.  I’ve heard.  I’m sorry if you never got a chance to enjoy one but I’m telling you it’s not too late – go to Ruby’s.  (unpaid advertisement- altho maybe if I show this to Ruby, I could get a free roll?)

OK, I’M SORRY!  I know I haven’t written.  I’m just like a kid at camp – I’ve been too busy enjoying summer to write.   Picture me laying on the grass under the old oak tree – just like Huck Finn - with knees bent and one leg crossed over the other while one foot swings up & down with the steady beat of an invisible metronome.   There’s a gentle breeze blowing while I’m reading “To Kill a Mockingbird” on my Kindle and sipping a cold lemonade with a handful of raspberries resting in it and condensation just dripping down the side.  It’s obviously 90 degrees and very humid (Minnesota), making it too hot for the flies to be serious about flying around annoying us – much.  Now & then I doze off until one of those flies works up the energy to fly over & tickle my nose.  My faithful dog is relaxing at my side, too hot to chase a stick and being almost perfect as always. 

I almost never stretch the truth so you can be sure that’s how it is. 

Now picture me in the garden, bent over at the waist until I say “Oh, my aching back” causing me to kneel on the ground until I say “Oh, my aching knees” - all the while sweat is dripping off my brow, down between “the girls”, gathering around the waistband of my too-tight pants and swatting mosquitoes.   (again, it’s Minnesota).  My faithful dog is running around chasing birds – STOP THAT – and taking a dip in the standing water in the ditch – STOP THAT - and tramping through my flowers – STOP THAT!!!  He’s being less than perfect as usual……….Go with whatever version of my story you prefer.

How much can I share today without you dozing off?  We’ll see.

L.T. (Loose Threads) met last week at CD’s house on the lake to sew & eat.  Yes, even after breakfast at Ruby’s.  We were to make miniature quilts for ourselves – assembly line fashion.  I told everyone the size of fabric to cut and how many to bring.  Time flew as we talked, laughed, talked, laughed, ate & sewed.  At the end of the day we had a “few” 4” blocks:

There were four 2” half-square triangles in each block.  Stay tuned as somebody should find time to put their blocks together.  Since I knew the plan, I made my quilt earlier with 2” blocks (four 1” half-squares):

 

You know I sew but am I good at it?  Not so much.  I may have gotten a little excited at finishing it up and forgot to notice if everything was going in the right direction.  Humility block. 

Altho, now that I think about it, I was also pretty excited while watching the Twin’s baseball game in which “my Joe”  got his 1,000th hit.  Now, if I had a prize I’d send it winging on it’s way to Donna in Texas who also happens to know about hit #1,000.    How did you know that & write to congratulate me?  I’ll be sure to pass that on to Joe.  Mr. Picket Fence & I were talking the other day – I’ll pause while you think about that --- but we’re just wondering if our  youngest son who is good at baseball, but not THAT good, could have been switched with Joe, thereby making him really “my Joe”.  The hospitals would have been about 200 miles apart  but still….it coulda happened I think.  And then the woman Joe calls “Mom” would be just a nobody and I’d hit the jackpot on Mother’s Day.  I love it!  Plus, think of the good seats we’d have at the ball games.  I suppose one might say I inhabit some sort of dream world, but it feels real to me.  I’m just sayin’.

Speaking of baseball, hubs and I ran into Dave Goltz the other day.  (He was honored a week or so ago as one of the 50 greatest Twins.  Way to go, Dave!!!  We so loved to watch him pitch back in the day.)  We had a nice visit and as we were walking away, I just had to slap myself upside my head.  WHY didn’t I tell him to say Hi to “my Joe”?????  AAAARRRGH!!!!!!!!  

Back to business.  A couple show & tells:

And this one has absolutely nothing to do with sewing – Jean does woodturning and this bowl is what she made with an ash burl:

Absolutely, positively beautiful!

Into every life a little rain must fall and if we’re lucky, after the rain we see the rainbow.  2 months shy of 2 years ago, my upper leg (femur) broke.  Now, after 3 surgeries and almost a month total of rehab, my wonderful surgeon in Minneapolis – who fixed the first surgical mess and who I believe is a surgical genius and really nice guy to boot– has told me that my bone has made a “solid” heal.    He was also the one who figured out why this bone broke and why my hip broke 5 years earlier.  I was taking Fosamax to PREVENT osteoporosis!  Yep.  An unnecessary drug which caused 2 broken bones.  Bones that just snapped without any trauma involved.  OK, that’s all I’m gonna say about that except that if you’re taking Fosamax, please speak to your Dr. about it.  Oh, and before you ask, I have normal bone density and I’m not yet 60.  Altho I won’t tell you how close I am……

A little of this and a little of that -

By my front door :

“The Sisterhood” gathered at Mrs. Farmhouse’s this summer.  I don’t want to let the cat out of the bag, but Karen doesn’t really live in a farm house.  She lives on the lake in a beautiful house with a “farmhouse feel”?  It has absolutely nothing whatsoever in common with the farmhouse I grew up in…….I’m just sayin’.

 

Karen has wonderful taste and there’s always things at her house that we wish were at our own homes.  In fact, GB told us to distract Karen so she could sneak off with this:

Just because it didn’t work out, doesn’t mean that we don’t admire your initiative Gail!

Karen asked us to bring along “a golden oldie” that we still like.  Here are some:

 

Karen’s Bulls-eye

 

 

 

  

Kari Carr’s (New Leaf Stitches) fairly new design

 

 

 

 

  Penny’s cross stitch.  Many hours in the awesome little piece of art.

 

 

 

 

If I recall correctly, I think this one belonged to Gail (the cabinet thief).  Hand embroidered blocks, each one different.  It was so pretty.

 

 

This is a new one made from flannel that looks like wool.  A hand embroidered design between all the blocks.  Very, very nice.  A real he-man quilt.

This star quilt (Buggy Barn I think) is one that LL is making for a wedding gift. 

This is an oldie from Neecie.  I recall her making it to use on the table for a daughter's graduation.  I’ve always loved that one too!

 

I’m pretty sure that this one belongs to Ms. Neecie too.  This one goes way back…..

 

My SIL and I spent a week driving to Colorado.  Her son (all 6’5” of him) is going to college there. 

It’s long way from home Mike BUT, you’re only 1 1/2 hrs. from my daughter’s family.  Of course we stopped to visit them for a few days.  Here’s my granddaughter Miss O, dressed as The Black Widow! Boo.o.o.

 

Sorry, Ms. O, you’re too cute to be scary!

 

 

 

 

Auntie Jean knit

this cap for

Miss O while we were on the road:

 

 

 

 

Am I right?  She’s the cutest, smartest, kindest to animals girl in the world.  Unless you have grandkids then they can be the best in the world!  OK?

Are you a member of the Prairie Women’s Sewing Circle?  Farmhouse Woolens and Dry Goods is hosting this monthly club.  We had our 1st “circle” 2 weeks ago – and what fun we had!  I’m trying to lead the group, but honestly, the ladies are being unreasonable about wanting to “follow”!  I’ve tried bribes – threats – pouting – nothing works with this group.  It doesn’t help that I know most of these gals pretty well and they know what a ditz I am in real life.  What’s a girl gonna do?  I am what I am.

This is the 1st project in the club – the little red quilt - and they will ALL come back next month with their finished project!  Right, girls?  This is how Karen displayed it in the store.

So Mrs. Farmhouse says, why don’t we throw in a couple of our own designs as extra projects for them?  Good idea Karen.  But she felt I should come up with the ideas.  Sheesh.

Idea #1 was in keeping with Prairie Women who had to be really, really careful not to lose their thimble.  We made thimble keepers that have a coneflower stitched on the front with a button for the flower center.  I told you that in case you couldn’t figure out what it is.

Idea #2 was to offer a pattern for a journal cover to fit a 3-ring binder.  It’s made of wool with a little prairie cloth for stitchin’.

And on the inside are pockets on both front and back covers.

I have a very good recipe I want to share.  But I think I’ll save it for next time.  That’ll motivate me to write – maybe.  So, that’s all for today.  What do you mean, “that’s ALL? -  either the woman disappears from the face of the earth or else she won’t SHUT UP!”    Sorry on both counts.  I vow to try to be more like my dog – almost perfect……….

Hugs to all from

Ms. Faye