Harvest Celebration!

Phil & JP finished our corn on Friday, November 28!!  

Yahoo!!!

Afterwards, they moved all the equipment to Mike’s (1 mile north) and worked there a bit Friday night and long & hard on Saturday.  

They finished!!!!  

I’m so glad & Phil & JP are so tired!  

The best part….. JP is now a combine operator!  

After Phil did the driver training Friday afternoon, JP finished our corn.  On Saturday, the hauling & unloading at Mike’s is a bit trickier so it worked out slick for JP to combine and Phil to unload.  

We are done!!

 

And just in the nick of time… several inches of snow are accumulating for our 3rd year in a row of a major snow dump on December 1st.   Maybe because of leap year it started a day too early?  😉

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Thanksgiving!

At church last night we could nail something we are worrying about to a cross and/or write something we are grateful for on a canvas.   

I wrote that I’m grateful for a loving & supportive husband and Christ-following children.   

I’m also thankful that my brother & his dear wife brought my parents here for Thanksgiving week!  We had a good time together!! 

I’m sorry I didn’t take fancy Thanksgiving photos but here are a few.

Before K headed back at noon on Friday.

Mom & Dad 

Big Brother worked to get everything in the trunk this morning!  We awoke to light snow they had to drive in for a bit.  They have reported in they arrived home.  We have 4 – 6 inches of snow now.  :p

They are ready to head home.  I’m thinking ‘what a dork’ for not doing pictures on Thursday!!   

We had a great visit!!

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Fall Art Sale

On Saturday, the 22nd, I picked up Phil’s mom and we headed to downtown Chicago to see K.  It was K’s second time to be in the SAIC art sale and it is probably her last time.   

She had purses and scarves for sale.   There was a paid admittance preview night on Thursday and then it was open to the public on Friday and Saturday.   Sales were up a bit from her spring show.  She was quite pleased to share a table with her friend.    

It is held in the Michigan building in the very nicely renovated ballroom!

After we visited with K for a bit, MIL & I headed around the corner for lunch.  We walked a few blocks around the area but the Saturday before Thanksgiving is NOT the time I want to linger and shop!  Crowded!!  

MIL always enjoys seeing the ice skaters at Millennium Park so we watched there for awhile.   That was our coldest place with the lake wind blowing on our heads.  

We stopped back at K’s table for a bit more visiting and then hugs good-bye.   Thankfully, she’d be home in a few more days for more time together!

 

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Corn Plot Harvested

Phil scheduled the corn plot harvest for Wednesday, Nov 19.   It must have been the coldest plot day ever with being so late in November.   

It is a slow afternoon as the combine dumps the load after just one pass through the field.   The corn is weighed and tested for moisture before being dumped into a main wagon.   Men from various seed companies are rallied to come help by the men from the County Extension office who keep the tallies.   

Since our plot is sponsored by the Extension and not an individual seed company, the seed companies are interested in our results that aren’t biased.  

Because we are thankful for their help, I provide snacks during their work time.   This year I made cinnamon rolls.  After all these years, they look forward to my homemade goodies.   It seemed they were especially happy for the warm-and-fresh-from-the-oven rolls on the cold day!

Thankfully it was sunny!

A view from my window:

 

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Company and a Busy Week in November

For 8 days in the midst of November, we had company that included Mom (Kristy) and children at 8 y/o & 6 y/o.  This house is so not used to young ones!!  LOL!

The children have been raised in southern areas so went into orbit with a few flurries on some of their days here.  It was also a new experience on a farm and they delighted in the baby pigs and farm equipment.

Here are some pictures from their visit:

The 6 y/o (son) enjoyed his first ever combine ride!!  And he was thrilled to help as well!

Movie time before bedtime.

Here is a  quilt I finished for Kristy.  She is now ready to mail it to her sister for her new nephew.

 

During the week I also moved Mrs. So & So’s soaps & lotions to two craft sales in neighboring towns.   This is the first time I’ve had my products at 2 different places at once.

On Friday, the 21st, I worked at Lynn’s show in my town.   When I arrived for my 4 hour shift, it was 16′ with a wind chill of 6’F.   Shiver!!!  The sale is held in her outside Carriage House.   Thankfully for this Christmas show the check-out is in the one area with a closed door.  That made it tolerable to work in our layers and winter coats but without gloves.

Today it is time to move my products home from Lynn’s but they will remain at the other location through Christmas.  

Remember: It is OK to use it… I’ll make more! 

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November Quilt Guild

Hi there Readers!!  I’m back and have lots to catch up on with you!!

Quilt guild for November was back on November 17.   We have a potluck for our Christmas gathering since we don’t meet in December.

Usually for a potluck, I just take my food and don’t do the potluck so that I’m guaranteed to have something safe I can eat.  However with the extra company I was taking, I made Meatball Stew (using ground pork just browned and not shaped into meatballs) and whole wheat sugar-free bread with butter.   I was happy that someone else had brought a cheese tray which gave me one more treat, a slice of cheese.

Before our potluck even started, Rhonda found me with my final secret sister gift!! She had me!  No wonder I got such great gifts each month, she is a super shopper.  🙂  She made this appliqued wall hanging in perfect colors for our bedroom.  I love it!!  The pink border fabric is so yummy!

I delivered my final gift to Bunny W.  It included the last of her 12 paper-pieced blocks, the directions for sashings and borders, and the fabrics for sashings, cornerposts, borders, and binding.   In her favorite colors of blues & yellows.  She is a very sweet & kind lady.

(I just looked!  I thought I had pictures of her blocks for posting now.  It is gone and I have no pictures!  Here’s to hoping she finishes the quilt and brings it for show & tell so I can show you the quilt.  I have the blocks done for a bigger quilt for me in pinks & browns.   I made 24 and think I need to make a few more for my quilt.   At that point, back in February, I was pretty done with them for awhile since I had just completed my 24 and Bunny’s 12!)

Do you notice that I’m dragging my feet about writing about the meeting? 

Ok… I’ll spill it!

First during the meeting, one of my jobs as Vice President this year has been to distribute the gifts each month.   If a member wears their nametag, they put their name in that basket.  If a member brings something for show & tell, they put their name in the show & tell basket.   Back in January, I purchased (with guild budget money) 2 gifts for each month.   Elaine, the quilt shop owner in Oregon, IL,  helped me with choosing all of those gifts!  So here I am reading the winners for this month.  Usually the gifts are a few fat quarters and a notion or little something.

For new business, Bernie and her wonderful team presented a full page proposal for a scaled-down version of a quilt show for us for next September!  They are a super group of friends and I was pleased with their ideas.   It is a go!! 

I presented our outgoing-President, Rhonda, with her box of quilt blocks.   She had chosen the pattern and the color scheme (civil war reproductions) and I made sure all the members had the pattern.  They turned their completed blocks in to me at previous meetings and I had them wrapped for her.

At the same time, she gave me the President’s gavel and the keys for the church.  I’m the new President for 2009!

My concerns include having to lock up the church and be the last one out (but several have said they’d help)! 

But I don’t mind a microphone or talking in front of crowds (imagine that!) so that part is fine.

Rhonda had gifts for her board members.  Here I am with Kathy, the outgoing treasurer.

On to show & tell, here are a few highlights:

Ann’s quilt – love these colors!

Bernie’s Tom Sawyer quilt.  Darling fabrics and I like the layout.

Bunny S shared her Thimbleberries quilt.

Time to head home… I closed the meeting.

Let me know if you want to go the the January meeting with me. 

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A Bad Dream

A few nights ago I dreamt I was at this month’s quilt guild meeting.  In the dream it took over 30 minutes to get there.  When I arrived I realized I had forgotten several important things: my gift for my secret sister and the Thank You blocks for the outgoing President from the guild members.   

To return home and get them would mean the meeting would be over and everyone would be gone before I’d get back.  

I cried!

Here’s hoping I have everything packed for tonight!  

Christmas tags for several boxes tonight:

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Just for Fun!

All warm & snuggly – way back in November 1992

 

Oh my!  It started early!!  Summer 1988 @ 2 1/2 yrs old.   

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Progress & Bonus Triangles

I made significant progress on my Pineapple Blossoms quilt today!  All the squares are done, I pressed the bonus triangles, layed out the top and have all the vertical rows joined and 1/3 of the horizontal rows joined.  Yeah!!  

This is the top layed out on the floor before I used Bonnie’s method for joining the blocks into rows.  It is a terrific way to do it, especially for me who lays out upstairs and sews downstairs!  I even got confident enough to take 2 rows down to sew at a time.  Saved me about 6 trips to the basement.  😉

Elinor asked about the bonus triangles Bonnie talked about last Monday.   I hope these photo steps help explain it better.  

In constructing the block, squares are laid across the corners and I sewed across the diagonal.

 

Then I sewed again, 3/8″ away from the first seam line.

 

Cut between the seams and the block is ready for the next step, while the extra triangles wait their turn.

 

Triangles pressed.  Next I’ll trim them to a uniform size and use them for a half-square triangle border on my quilt.   It only took a few minutes more to sew what would just be more scraps.  By sewing them right away everything was already lined up!  More free quilt!  🙂

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Harvest Report

Phil talked with various grain truckers and farmer friends at church over the weekend and the verdict stands.

 We are all in the same boat — about halfway done!  

*sigh*

Thankfully today is sunny & dry.  After having a bit of Grand Central Station here this morning (bin pipe people, no bin finishing people, insurance man, tractors trying to move to another field….) the combine is running, student is learning, & mom is cleaning.   All is well.

When K was home mid-October….

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