Motivtion Friday and a Few Pictures

The last few weeks I've been sewing in JOT moments.  I now have enough Uneven 9 Patches to make a quilt.  Here are a few blocks I laid out to see how they looked--

Will need the design wall for the final layout.  These were made using my box of 5" charm squares.  98 blocks didn't make a dent in the charm box.  

Last Saturday 2Rs, Mary from SD and I attended the Sioux Falls Quilt Guild show.  Mary laughed at 2Rs and I, our first stop was the Guild's Rummage sale.  Lots of fun bargains--I limited myself to one book and fabric--

If you enlarge the picture you can see the price/yardage marked on each piece.  This made purchasing so easy!  My goal was borders/bindings fabric with a few "zinger" fabrics to liven my scrap quilts--

I HAD to buy this piece--

The show was very busy so only a few pictures.  This quilt is wool applique on cotton fabric-

The little circles are about the size of a pencil.  Check out the beautiful stitching.  Also at the show was Scott Flanagan--

Scott gave a great trunk show about his personal quilting history.  You can read about him on facebook.  He has many published patterns, I bought Back Draft, you can see his patterns here.  He taught two classes also for the Quilt Show.  With my bum shoulder I could not participate.

Its Paddlefish Snagging Season here at Gavins Point.  Check out this one--

That is a FAT fish!  The gulls are numerous, flying down by the water watching for stunned fish that come through the power plant and spillway.  One was caught in a fishing line when the fisherman cast his snagging line--

 It's a Franklin Gull, and was definitely a "catch and release" moment.  

And people continue to park in obvious "no parking" zones--

These are NOT parking spots.  The parking spot has a big blue handicapped symbol--these lines are behind the symbol for cars/vans that have the handicapped lifts.  These vehicles are parked behind the vans/cars who parked in designated spots. It was a nice day, no reason for these vehicles to park there.  There were plenty of open spots near Walmart's doors.  I simply do not understand arrogance of these people!

Its a beautiful fall day, I want to go outside and just enjoy the sunshine!

~Lori1R in Nebraska~

Rainbow Scrappy Saturday and Life

This week I finished 32 Uneven 9 Patches or Puss in Corner blocks--

It was a challenge taking a picture of these in the "gentle breeze" the other day.  

I thought of the Rainbow Scrappy Challenge colors of brown and black--

Please see what everyone has made at SoScrappy.

Last week I made "sticky buns"--

They didn't last long, I shared them at the Visitor Center.  The weather has turned cold and WINDY💨.  Wednesday I picked my favorite flowers and brought them inside the camper.  The mint, basil, and fuschia went underneath in a storage compartment that stays above freezing.  A few days in the dark won't hurt them.

I tied them together using strips of Walmart bags so they took up less room.  No watching TV from the recliner!  In a few days the temps will go up and they can go back outside for a while.  

Thursday Rangers David and Galen rescued a juvenile Osprey--

Photo Credit Regina Seaman

It was injured (a left wing) and was captured by Ranger David Mines and Biologist Galen Jons.  Nebraska Conservation Officer Mitch Johnson transported it to a raptor rehabilitator.  Thank you Regina for calling us about this injured bird in the Cottonwood campground.

Today 2Rs, Mary from South Dakota, and I are at Dakota Pieces Quilt Guild show in Sioux Falls.  Have a good weekend!

~Lori1R in Nebraska~
 

Moving Along

Its already October.  Its cold and rainy, drizzly and overcast--is this what living in England is like?  Its only 45F, where is a sunny dry fall day?  Where are the clear blue skies?  Sigh  We've had at least 2" of rain the past few days.  

Last Friday, Saturday, and Sunday I sewed with 2Rs and the Iowa Sweat Shop Ladies.  It felt so good to do that.  Stashbusters Yahoo group is on a mission to use up precuts we've had in our stashes, this month featured jelly rolls.  PERFECT!  Earlier I had bought this book--

Its by Gudrun Erla and its a GREAT book!  Each quilt has several sizes, pressing diagrams, lots of illustrations.  The directions are clear and easy.  I chose Ribbon Candy, here are the 32 blocks I made--

2Rs did most my cutting this weekend.  Sewing is hard on my shoulder.  It took me all weekend to make these simple blocks.   My soul was happy but my shoulder complained.  

2Rs cut and completed a top a group of friends chose as a challenge pattern--

Autumn Argle is featured on the cover of Quilts and More fall issue.  These are the fabrics I picked--

Originally I had a gold/orange plaid, but it worked better for a project 2Rs was working on, and she replaced it with the green.  The green really fits better with the purple spider webs and skulls.  I've never made a Halloween quilt before.  (2Rs cut it out for me--Thank you 2Rs!!)

We were a small group sewing this weekend, Kathleen was working on her pink duck quilt--

Kathleen does perfect machine applique.  The ducks fit in well with our weather!

Max is four and went to the apple orchard with his preschool.  Laura Beth was able to be there and took a few pictures--

Each child was given a bag to pick five apples.  They had a hay ride out to the orchard and talked about the different colored apples. 

Not sure what happened, but Max didn't make it home with five apples!  

Tuesday Ken and I went to Walmart, people continue to park in no parking areas--

There are more handicapped spaces to park in if they are needed.  

The right shoulder is still painful. 

Almost five months of rest, rehab exercises, and a cortisone injection.  Yesterday I had an MRI, the Dr. suspects a badly bruised ligament or a rotor cuff tear.  Waiting to see what the MRI report says. 

Volunteering is almost over for the year.  The cold weather doesn't affect me, my camper stays snuggly warm.  No frost so far, I hope the last of the tomatoes ripen.  Some of the flowers are beginning to look rather straggly, but the hibiscus is blooming happily. 

~Lori1R in Nebraska~

Rolling Along

What a week!  Last week Tuesday and Wednesday it rained.  And rained.  AND RAINED!!  Somewhere between 11" and 12".  Our little town was flooded.  The water was 5" deep on the lawn.  The water seeped through the windows into the basement.  Not a lot of water, it just trickled in and oozed across parts of the basement floor.  Ours is not a finished basement so it just made a mess.  I was at the camper and had to wait until the water went down enough (many roads were closed) to drive home.  Ken and I did the "great fling".  Ken hauled 35 large black garbage bags outside for garbage pickup.  Nothing of any real value.  A suitcase with very old photos (pre1940) got wet, I was able to spread them out and dry them.  Only a couple photos were lost. 

Much of this section of South Dakota is still flooded.   The James River near Gayville SD has overflowed its banks 7 miles.  South Dakota is flat, there are no places to drain the water.  Many major roads are still closed, a part of I90 has one lane traffic through water.  

My right arm is still giving me lots of pain.  What's a girl to do when she can't sew?  YOU SHOP!!!  I bought a new sewing machine--

Brother RXR3240

Not an expensive machine, I ordered it through Amazon.  I wanted a machine to do decorative stitches. This machine has 130 stitches and it sews a very accurate 1/4" stitch.  Its lightweight, so I can pack it to travel with.  I tried the first 99 stitches so far.  What don't I like?  Its noisy.  I prefer a knee pedal but this is a portable machine so no knee pedal.  The old Singers hum quietly when they run.  Like many things in our lives this is a "throw away" item.  Use it until it quits and if its out of warranty--toss it.  I am hoping to use the decorative stitches to machine bind my donation quilts, hand binding might be something I simply cannot do anymore.  

I wanted to try out the machine with some simple piecing.  I had Uneven 9 patch blocks started using this method--Susies Scraps.  So Wednesday I slowly worked on finishing the last seams (they had been pinned ready to sew for a couple months).

 The book by Lynn Roddy Brown sparked this scrappy project--

The cover photo is my inspiration.  The blocks reverse the dark/light sections.  Set on point it makes a great scrappy quilt. 

Its a beautiful day today, the sun is shining and there's a slight breeze.  Time to enjoy the last days of summer.

~Lori1R in Nebraska~

Design Wall Tuesday and a few pics

Nothing on my design wall but I did visit Lorri2Rs, she made a couple of these blocks while I was there---

They are small blocks--4" finished?  2Rs has a bunch of these blocks--but she probably needs +70 more to make even a small quilt.  She enjoys making them.  I would turn them into quilted coasters!

The potted garden is producing--

The zucchini are happy in a laundry basket pot.  Tomatoes are OK with a tree pot for a home.  Picked a small bucket of tomatoes last night.  Tomato sandwiches will be on the menu.

I had a couple of apples on the counter so I made a crostata--

It was ok, I used a new recipe and it has a bit too much lemon juice and zest for me.  But it was fun to make.

This morning in the Visitor Center we had a bat.  I'm not scared of bats, we use heavy leather gloves to handle them.  He was one cranky bat, I could feel him attempting to bite me.

He's a Little Brown Bat--please read about him here.  I hung him outside on a tree branch, he looks a knot on the branch.  

It a beautiful sunny day in Nebraska, 81F,  I ate my lunch outside.  

~Lori1R in Nebraska~

 

He's a dork!

Don't be fooled by my husband, he is NOT the quiet serious person you think he is!  

~Lori1R in Nebraska~

Catching Up

A lot of life has happened in the last few weeks.  Ken's mother died.  

The last few years were hard for her.  She took care of her husband who had Alzheimers.  After he died she did okay for a while, but gradually her health deteriorated.  She moved from her house to a duplex, to an assisted living, to rehab facility, to nursing home.  Ken's sister Jo says she died of a broken heart, she missed Marvin terribly. She was 85yo and they were married 63 years. 

Ken and I got new phones.  Somehow in all the switching my August photos were lost.  We had taken family pictures after the funeral as everyone was there.  (I hope Jo has some to share with me.)  First I chose a Motorola phone, it was nice but I wanted a better camera.  I switched it out for a Samsung A50.  Here is the first picture we really noticed the difference in the photo quality--

We noticed the detail on the coin and on the tiny bat skull.  Capturing photo details on small shiny objects is hard.  Today we took pictures of a cicada--

Note the detail in the pic, the color was exceptional, we had not noticed how "green" he was until we saw the photo.  (He's on my hand.) Even his eyes were a shade of green!  Next we moved him to his natural habitat--a dead branch--

See how well he blends in?  Then I took a normal picture--

He has almost disappeared!  I only cropped the pictures, no editing of color.  

Mason and Ken had birthdays, Mason turned 11yo and Ken, well, we didn't put candles on his cake because it was a fire hazard!

During all this Ken and I had bad coughs/colds/sinus infections.  Unfortunately I shared mine with Karla.  I'm sorry Karla!  

I'm happy with my garden in pots--

13 big tomatoes on this big plant--its a Brandywine, an heirloom variety.  The flavor is spectacular, not mushy and flavorless.  A tomato should taste like a tomato!

The Fuchsia plant has some exotic beautiful flowers.

This Canna surprised me in the best way, I had forgotten what color I had planted, love the orange/yellow splashy pattern.  These last three photos required no editing for color/light, all I did was crop and add text.  The A50 camera is that good!

Tomorrow I hope to go to Lorri2Rs and sew a little.  Its time for a break, my soul needs feeding!

The weather is absolutely beautiful.  Its hard to stay inside.

~Lori1R in Nebraska~

My flowers are starting to bloom, here is the "flower tower"--

There are two varieties of Morning Glory--Grandpa Ott and Heavenly Blue.

They have a luminous glow to them.  I love old fashioned Zinnias too--

Zinnias and Morning Glorys never fail me.  This small vine/flower snuck in a hanging pot--

The flowers are small but bright!  I have a Tropical Hibiscus I overwintered in the house.  Its new to me, I followed the directions on the internet and pruned it back severely over the winter.  I thought it might not recover or bloom--but here is the first flower--

 Yesterday I saw different butterflies visiting the flowers--

"The Silver-spotted Skipper almost never visits yellow flowers but favors blue, red, pink, purple, and sometimes white and cream-colored ones."   

I read this information after taking pictures, so I paged back--nope, no butterflies on yellow flowers!  

Not being able to sew has been awful.  Yesterday I pulled out some blocks that needed pressing.  Instructions were in the bag with the blocks--

I had completely forgotten the pattern but remembered it as I was pressing them!   

https://quiltnotes.com/learning-center/corner-4-patch/

Summer is beginning to wind down.  The weather has been perfect the last few days.  Warm days with cool nights.  Ahhhh--I love summer!

~Lori1R in Nebraska~