New Irrigation System

Phil calls this his new irrigation system.

Take the snow from the other side of the road and blow it to our field!
There is so much snow on the highway and no where to put it. Yesterday afternoon the westbound lane of the highway had snow just to the white line. A big wall of snow!
Today the state snowblower came and peeled back about a foot of it. Near our lane it got so high the bank was too high for the snow to blow over it. So he spun the blower and shot it across the highway to our side! Amazing!Another chapter in my book, Nothing Ever Happens on MY Block!

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Spring is NOT here!

Another dumping of snow & wind was not really what I would have planned for today.

We have 9 or 10″ of new fluffy snow. High winds are making lots of blowing snow and drifts.

Phil had a workshop today, mandatory for livestock producers, so headed out. It took him 1/2 hr to get past town. (Usually a 10 minute trip.)

I assume I won’t be able to make my massage today, rescheduled from last week when she was sick. I’ve increased the Advil.
So school and making lunch come next. Then maybe the sewing room.

My orchid has 3 blooms that just opened!

Praying for my mom…

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Dear Jane update

I have part of my February Dear Jane blocks done. I’ve combined them with the January ones.

My triangles are in the wrong place as they go along the outside edge. I’ll change this as I get more done.

Here they are as only February blocks:

The blocks finish to 4 1/2″ x 4 1/2″. Tiny when you put so many pieces in there! Many blocks this month have hand appliqué and I have block A12 ready to hand-piece! Gasp!!

My favorite is A-9 (the first one, black & white). I have 3 blocks to assemble a bit and then hand appliqué that I may get to by the end of the week.

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Da-Drummer!

After months… nearly a year …. of waiting, our music pastor (new since Nov) asked JP to play for the Saturday services last night.

Huge celebration here!!

Practice on Wednesday went great! A friend from small group was singing and she gave us good information we may have not gotten from our son. 😉

Saturday when we arrived for church, JP was happy and said all the afternoon practice time had gone well.

The music for the first service was terrific! He was loud and strong and right there! Happy all the time. Ken gives good clues to him for what is next and he is a great leader. We stayed to hear the opening of the second service and came back for the closing song.

The last song of the opening included:

Hallelujah!
Hallelujah!
Hallelujah!
Our God Reigns!

We sang through that about 4 – 5 times with each time through, the drum getting stronger.

I was blown away by the talent in my son, my miracle baby, now serving in such a wonderful expression of worship.
God reigns!

Of course, THAT made me tear up…. how could this be?

And it seems the right time, the right place, the right group to work together.

We had hopes that Ken would ask JP to play again. JP said Ken asked which he prefers, Saturday or Sunday services. Not if, but when!

I wish I had a picture. A video would be wonderful. Can’t you just see me videoing during church! If he becomes a regular, you’ll just have to come and see for yourself.

We are thankful!

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Anyone voting?

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Embroidered Towel

I found a great deal on this HUGE bath towel at Kohl’s last weekend. I wanted a new towel for the fitness center anyway.

But plain ol’ white….

needed some embroidery….

wa-la!

I’m really happy with how it turned out. I used my Mega Hoop and I’m so glad to have that knowledge under my belt! I used AquaMesh Plus on the top & bottom. I love how the stitches are on top and not hiding in the terry.

Nice HUGE towel and I’ll try it out tonight after swim! (Hopefully the other Joyce there won’t like it too much!)

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Knitwear Design

K is having a huge & exciting experience with Knitwear class this semester.

Some of this interest started last spring in a Fashion Design class. She was to design outfits based on something significant from where she is from and she chose to use corn & soybean fibers for knitting.

This is part of her display for that project and the knit swatches are brown & navy.

She has been searching for more information on this since then. Phil found an article on a lady in Iowa that uses corn fibers for knitting. Over Christmas break, K searched and found an email for her.

Now they have corresponded several times and…. as of tonight, Diane is custom dyeing corn fiber yarn for K’s final Knitwear Design project!!

In between the then & now, she sent K a large box of corn fibers in various stages as well as a skein of variegated yarn for K to try.
She used this sample package as part of her presentation for another fashion class,

then donated samples to the Fashion Resource Department,

made herself a hat,
and is buying some of the fibers now from Diane for her final Knitwear project.

She sent K some sample colors to choose from –
K made a swatch of “autumn”:
Her final project is a knit outfit and I think you’ll really like the final result. She has designed it and when the yarn arrives will start knitting! She enjoys the knitting and others say she is fast so that will help.

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He’s cleaning in the basement…

….so most of the time my job is to sort a box he brings me for trash, Salvation Army, or keep. The keep pile is pretty small.

Lots of boxes of little kid toys.
A few items are up on ebay.
Found several old Christmas letters, mostly from Mom, and a thank you from A & E for their new Easter coats. 🙂

The leisure suits Phil had in the 70’s are going to Salvation Army. I think JP should wear one!

Today’s assortment included this card. I think I must have written it to a sibling who was at camp. If I made the card and Bruce had made pizza, then maybe Margaret or Nancy will admit to receiving this. Hey, the hard part is that I wrote it! LOL

Nice pretty marker picture for the front (right) and back (left).


Nice greeting inside!

It was hard to read the pencil writing that I scanned, so here it is in black & white.

So I thought this painting by K in kindergarten fit here —


And then we found a huge 11 x 14″ picture of K that my dad had taken and had enlarged – must be sometime in ’86 —


Meanwhile, my to-do for today was my January Block for The Quilt Show BoM. I’m not getting into this. I love my fabrics but the whole turning under the seams on a zillion pieces to be appliqued is not happening for me.

I don’t know if I will chuck the whole project or use fusible webbing instead.

After lunch and exercising, I’m going to tackle my Dear Jane blocks for February. even tho an altered tag necklace is swimming in my head.

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Fabric Postcard Valentines

Well, a few Valentines are arriving. Woo-Hoo!!

So on Tuesday’s blog we had the beginning pictures….

Two big pieces were cut to become these:

I added trims and vintage valentines printed on fabric:


Added binding:
I put a piece of linen napkin on the back, carefully wrote a short message as the bumpy napkin was tough, and added an address.

Only to find out at the post office that ALL mail now goes through machines so even though they can hand cancel them, they still had to survive the machine. So I had to put them in envelopes. I was bummed but maybe the receivers don’t mind too much.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

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Altered Board Book

K received her Valentine’s box yesterday so I can show you the rest of the book. Yes, it was for her. 🙂
There are white buttons down the front that spell her name, so imagine it!

The beginning pictures are on yesterday’s blog. After gold, then came a layer of Golden Acrylics Quinacridone Magenta. I watered it down and put on a layer but then dabbed it with a crumpled paper towel. That took away the brush strokes and left a good mottled look.

I applied 2 layers of Regular Gel – gloss. First I tried matte, but it was too dull. I think the gloss is too sticky. Hmmm…

Now for the pages…

I built each page on a piece of linen napkin. (I cut it!!) Then added photos I had printed on fabric on the computer. I wanted to try regular broadcloth for printing. I ironed it to freezer paper, cut it to size, and ran it through the printer.

I added various trims, some vintage valentines printed on fabric, stitched some pieces down, and then ironed it to the book page.

I like doing this but I think I get so excited about starting that I need to sand it more at the beginning so everything sticks better.

I like the added fibers – they cover the cracks where the book splits and add the touch of messy that I wanted!

I love it!

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