I made a brief visit to the Sew Fun program this morning and found:
This shirt is from the LoriAnne pattern, with a cowl made to cover the neckline. What a unique way to change a look!
These quilts made from foundation piecing and Mylar Stars books. Neither were extremely exciting.
Sew Fun had the usual purses and pressing mats, pillows, and even a purse organizer, but I think more thought should have gone into this program. I think the program chair may be running out of ideas, or maybe it is just difficult to keep coming up with new things to sell us.
I left early and got some quotes on lumber prices to fix the stalls in the barn and a few groceries and was back home by lunch.
AND THEN, after lunch, I took some “me time” The weather was so beautiful and it will soon be winter, my soul needed to be nourished by just sitting in the sun enjoying the gorgeous view. Do you ever do that? Just be quiet, sit, and enjoy. I think I will do it more often. Why am I always in such a rush to get things done that I don’t take time to enjoy the little things?
The rest of the day was spent cleaning a freezer and doing credit checks on a potential tenant. Tomorrow we will take the money to the attorney and the following day, the papers should be signed. And then, the real work begins, getting the house ready to live in again.
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Slowly, but surely, with little minutes here and there. The gussets are nearly done. I think I’m a slow knitter because it takes me 18-20 hours to do a pair of socks -time dependent on how much cuff and how many stitches I drop and have to pick up and how many times I have to lay the project down and pick it up again.
No photo, but I spent an hour in the dentist chair this afternoon having 2 small cavities filled.
On the way there, I stopped and bought 2 gallons of honey from a friend who has many hives of bees and has them at various people’s farms. I learned that our hardware store now sells food grade buckets for food. And guess what, their logo gets spread around. DH believes that everything one sells should have something to help sales. This qualifies.
The last thing to purchase was a storm door for the hoop house which will be recovered this weekend.
And here’s a HINT: for all these holidays coming up. Buy yardage, serge or hem the edge, pop it on your table to look all cheery and when the holiday is over, you can save it for next time, or make something else from it.
The morning started with mending 2 pair of pants. These turned out surprisingly well for daughter. Then it was off to give a bit of supervision to someone who was going to help me today. He did get the “wee barn” swept out and the sleeping area for the three sheep all cleaned. It looks and smells good in there now.
Look at these silly ducks. Why would you go outside the fence to be able to put your head inside to get water? Silly, silly ducks.
I asked my new helper to dig up the potatoes. The ground is hard, but there are about 100# of potatoes in a 30′ space. We had a lot of potatoes that didn’t get eaten in time this spring, so we just planted them. And had the best harvest ever. I think we’ll get another 100# out of each of the two rows we have left to harvest. No we don’t need that many, but we won’t starve. Well, he dug about 30#, decided it was lunch and came and asked for his money after lunch. Ah, help is not perfect these days. So instead of sewing or quilting, I dug potatoes, picked tomatoes, picked a few raspberries and a couple cabbage. (but you are probably as tired of photos of these as I am of taking them). Then it was time to fertilize and water the hoop house and the raspberries which are looking rather shriveled from lack of water. Next the front yard and driveway plants were watered and supper was simply leftovers. There was my day and when did I sew or quilt?
But winter (sewing/quilting time) is coming and the way this harvest has been going, I won’t be spending much time at the grocery store. I was lucky that all the running around took care of half of my steps for the day – I’m over my 10,000 goal, and yes I did work in 5 minutes on the elliptical. I need that exercise to be able to do the other things. Who has time to grow old?
I started the morning by opening an email that I should not have opened. Then I waited for the Geeksquad to remove the virus or whatever from my computer so I could again use it. After that a phone call to Handiquilter and I believe my machine may be more cooperative.
In between those chores, I did get a pattern copied onto pattern pellon for a jacket. I even was able to get the main pieces cut out of this cotton fabric. It will be a loose, lightweight cotton jacket using the new serger. However, I do not have the right thread, so will pick that up tomorrow.
Off to the grocery briefly for a couple very good watermelons and out to the garden. We picked the funniest shaped carrots. Next year the ground will have to be worked deeper. These poor carrots just could not break through the hardpan. Still they are delicious.
These beets were growing beside the carrots, but since they are shorter, they didn’t have the same troubles. They filled this 4 gallon bucket about 3/4 full. Oh, and there were a few potatoes that were from a potato that was left in the ground over winter. I pulled a beet and harvested 6 potatoes much to my surprise. So we will be enjoying roasted root vegetables.
Lazy Girl’s Sweetpea Pods are fun and make up quickly. They are marvelous for small items that you would like to keep together and not lose. If it was holding liquid, I would estimate about 1.5 cups. It measures about 3 x 6″. The first one took a bit more time to make. The zipper trick was knew to me, and was a bit fiddly the first time, but once you do one, it becomes easy. The directions are VERY clear.
One needs only a 10″ square of fabric, another of lining, and another of batting to make two of these. One zipper with two pulls is also needed. So you can really make these little cuties with scraps.
Here is my first one. They will make perfect little gifts. I want to look around for some fun zipper pulls to attach. I highly recommend you make some of these for yourself and for gifts. The patterns are available at quilt shops as well as on line.
Big red, medium red, and little red cars were parked in front of us at the grocery store. It amused me. It doesn’t take much, does it?
Today we used the pintuck foot on the coverstitch part of our serger for a variety of looks. The first is ordinary pintucks.
Today in serger foot class we practiced with the elastic foot both putting elastic on
Shelves have been replaced, so now I can load them up with jars again. That fiberboard just doesn’t hold them. I have been to Lowe’s several times to get this wood cut, but their saw has been down. I get them to cut the right size and then I can put them in myself.
I am drying the parsley I picked Friday and decided to freeze the kale. I just freeze it whole and when frozen, it is so easy to crumble off the stems. Then it is easy to add to various dishes.
This is the Lemon Squeeze jacket I showed you earlier. I finally threaded the serger and sewed this up. It still needs to be hemmed, but it is all in one piece.
Holiday creativity was the focus this month. These are sweet little girl aprons that could be started now and actually finished in time for Christmas.
As you can see there was a lot of emphasis on placemats, table cloths and runners as well as bed runners and pillows which make perfect gifts for yourself or someone special. These are terrific because they don’t take a long time to make, but make a big splash. 
This book by Leisure Arts has several nice runners.