A Lake Day...

Our family has a lake home on Lake Martin. The water at our home goes down every fall and rises again in the spring. (This is because it is an electric utility lake with a dam.) So every fall we get the pontoon boat and the SeaDoo off their hydraulic lifts, drive them to a boat ramp, and pull them out of the water on their trailers. Then we can park them behind the home and winterize them.

This fall is no different, HOWEVER, it is different. Hubby's been in Birmingham for almost 2 months with his dying father. Together he and I can get the boats out, but I can't do it by myself. The water has already dropped enough that our SeaDoo is stranding on its lift for the winter. UGH! And we felt we only had days left to get the pontoon boat out.

So yesterday I went up to the lake and went through the house gathering the necessary keys.

Trailer key.
Lift mechanism.
SeaDoo key. (To winterize it on the lift)
Boat ramp key.
Boat key.

The keys are in a couple of different locations. Some are labeled well. Some are not. I kept sending Hubby picture like this until I had the correct combination.

Once I had the correct keys, I took them to our favorite boat maintenance guy at the local marina. He's taking care of the rest for us! Yay! He went at lunch time with a buddy and got pontoon out of the water. He'll come back later to winterize the SeaDoo. This was such a big load off of us!

Last night's dinner. Have you tried these? I love that they are protein packed. And they are much more filling and yummy than other low calorie frozen meals. Lately I'm living on salads, egg whites and toast, and an occasional frozen dinner. (And also fruit and spinach smoothies!)

Sorry, no sewing to report. The lake trip took up my time yesterday. Maybe today? We are all on pins and needles, knowing that my FIL will die soon. He's been unconscious for more than a week. He's not in any pain due to morphine. We are praying he will go soon. It's time. We have all begun the grieving process during his 3 week stay at the Hospice facility. Don't mean to get negative here - I try to keep the blog upbeat. But this is life for us at the moment.

Kaffe Fassett Artisan Fabric and New Clothes!

Have you heard about this? Kaffe Fassett has a new line of fabric coming out with Free Spirit!

I had just told a friend recently that I would NOT buy any Kaffe Fassett fabric when I go to Houston. I have plenty. But then I heard this news. Oh dear. May have to have some....

In other randomness...

Last week I placed an order with Stitch Fix - have you heard of this? It's really fun. It's an on-line site for clothing and accessories. It's very simple - you just fill out a quick questionnaire about your style, colors you like or don't like, price you'd be willing to pay (starting with 'as cheap as possible' and on up), size, etc. You pay only $20. You can also include notes such as - don't send me any dresses or pants - just tops, or I don't wear sleeveless tops - anything at all that you think they may want to know.

Then a stylist selects five pieces for you and in days they arrive at your home. I asked for only tops and accessories. My box arrived Saturday! Lucky me - I adore one of the tops and a gorgeous necklace they sent. Here is a closeup of the top I kept along with the necklace. The top is more emerald than shows in the picture. I wish you could feel the fabric - top quality. And the necklace is great too, with a nice weight to it.

  You try everything on, keep what you want, and pile the rest in a prepaid large envelope that they provide and drop it in the mail. You only pay for what you keep and the $20 fee is applied to your purchase. If you want to keep all five pieces you get 25% off the entire purchase.  They also send photos of ideas to style every piece they send - what help for a fashion challenged person like myself!
Here's the style card for the top showing how to style it with jeans and how to dress it up a bit.

I'll definitely be doing this again - it's perfect for people like me who don't enjoy shopping (unless it's for fabric!)

Have a happy Monday...

A Reader's Quilts!

I'm calling time out on watching football for this quick post. I got the sweetest email yesterday:

Your hexie patterns used in 2 quilts that were exhibited at the AAQG Show this weekend. In my write up I cited you for the free patterns. These quilts were fun & will be in my home from now on. The only pattern I changed was Oct. where I put a spider. Thank you for sharing your patterns. Always your fan, Margaret Berggren

Didn't Margaret do a fantastic job? The nursery quilt has more than 2000 beads on it! Wow!

Am I sewing today? No....Daughter 2 and her hubby are in town! They are spending the weekend here and are on campus getting fired up for the game this evening. I'm hunkered down in front of the TV watching games with the doggies.

Hope you're having a fun day!
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A Pillow Day

This is my newest toy. Have you seen these? They are templates (rulers) to use with a domestic sewing machine for free motion quilting. I've had them for a couple of months but just tried them today. (FYI- you do need a special ruler foot for your machine. I got the ruler foot, but also had to buy an adapter so it would fit my machine.)

Different rulers have different purposes. This one is made for clamshells. The other side of the ruler makes even bigger clamshells. I decided this pillow project was the perfect way to play with them.

Pretty good clamshells...especially for my first time!

I used another ruler to do this flower design in the center - the only thing I had to mark was the center of the square.

I think my pillow turned out well and I love it on our screened porch!

There are apparently LOTS of different quilting rulers like this available - more shapes, etc. - I hear there are even hexagon templates!

My kit also came with a ruler to help with stitching in the ditch - yes, it does help so much!

There are lots of Youtube videos that give instructions for using the rulers, along with Craftsy classes. My rulers are made by Westalee. The only problem I had was going through intersections where there were lots of seam allowances underneath. My machine would often get 'stuck' - though after a bit I learned how to fix it - I would raise my ruler foot and move the fabric just a bit so that the needle was away from the bulk.

All in all though, I really love this product line - I plan to get more!

Another Pillow?

I have one lone block leftover from my Allietare quilt. I think it will make a nice pillow for our screened porch, don't you? I need to add some borders to it to make it bigger and then I'll quilt it. Sound like a good mindless project for today!

I didn't sew any yesterday. I did go to the grocery store. And I made bread:

I found the recipe HERE - Honey Oatmeal Walnut Bread. This is a great recipe!!!! I didn't have walnuts so I threw in a handful of pumpkin seeds. And I left off the poppy seeds from the tops of the loaves. I will definitely make this again! FYI, I double the recipe to make 2 loaves...

I am using my Kitchenaid mixer to knead the dough so it's really not hard to make. Also, I'm putting the extra loaf in the freezer until I need it. I store the loaf that I'm using in the refrigerator - you know, store bought bread has preservatives so that it will stay fresh longer - mine does not. I typically eat one slice of bread for breakfast with eggs and then eat another slice with my dinner. Trying to keep it to 2 slices per day (though sometimes I might eat 3...).

Cooper and I are going for a nice long morning walk - better to get him harnessed up. Hope you have a lovely day.

A Finished Quilt Top!

Oh yes, I did! When you sew all day long, you get a lot done. I decided to stop at 48 blocks and make this a lap quilt - I love lap quilts. It measures 48" by 64" - 6 blocks by 8 blocks.  This was certainly a fast quilt to make! I plan to quilt it myself - soon, I hope!

Typically, Cooper and I take our walk in the late afternoon. But the weather was so pleasant yesterday morning that we took off. And we took a different route by one of the lakes in our neighborhood.

We have 18 miles of trails in our neighborhood, all covered with crushed red brick. There are a few lakes too, stocked with fish for those who want to go fishing.

And then in the late afternoon, we did it again!

Today I don't know exactly what I'll sew. This latest project was perfect for mindless sewing. I'll figure it out. I do know I'm making bread. Remember those 3 loaves a made a few weeks ago? This has become my bread of choice- I eat a slice or two everyday and it's almost gone now. And I'll make a grocery run.

Hope you have a great day!

Mindless Sewing

I took this picture late yesterday afternoon. It truly sums up the way I'm feeling this week. Lots of dark clouds. A storm ahead. A big storm. But there is a glimmer of light and hope. My FIL is still with us, but only for a few days at most.

Because of my mood, I have needed to work on mindless sewing. I'm sure you know what I mean - I need to sew projects that don't need concentration. Because of that I've put aside the thread painting and the hexies this week. I'll get back to them soon.

I did finish making all the edges blocks of Allietare. I also sewed on the inner border. I need more navy fabric for the outer border. Up until now I've made this entire quilt from my stash, so I don't feel bad about buying the border fabric. And a backing. (Yes, I ordered on-line because I didn't feel like getting out.) Sorry, Debbie... (Debbie is my good friend and shop owner, FYI..)

And then there's this. What? Another project? Of course. Haven't you figured out by now that I LOVE to start new projects?  Ha!

The pattern is called Summer at the Beach and you can find it HERE. I'm making this quilt with a friend. Have you ever done that? We are both making the pattern, separately but together. Her quilt will be a Christmas present. Mine? Not sure yet, but it is one of those easy patterns that is fun to sew. And it's mindless.