Halloween will soon be upon us

I thought I would post pictures of our tasteful Halloween decor.

Miss M. made this cheesecloth ghost in 1st group.  It's really cute!

These sit on the dining room windowsill.
 I like the spider candleholders.

Outside by the front door

The basket gets filled with candy and it's always gone by 9:00 pm.

Beth makes the Jack o' Lantern from a design Miss M. chooses on the Web.

Here's a scary one!

Tennis Champions

My birthday present this year from Beth was tickets to see four tennis champions in action at the United Center.  So we went--months later.  It was a grand experience and we had very good seats.  Some of the event was choreographed; John McEnroe arguing with the umpire and giving the ball people hard times, but it was all very enjoyable.  I was surprised that I could even see the ball, but I could.  And there was replay on the Jumbotron.  The only disappointing part was that Bjorn Borg claimed illness and Todd Martin substituted for him.  Otherwise it was nice to see Johnny Mac, who received a huge welcome, Andre Agassi and Jim Courier.  Most of the points were short, but there were a few good rallies.  I took pictures even though I thought they wouldn't show much and here they are.

John McEnroe arguing with the umpire!

The Jumbo Tron

Miss M. had to  come along even though it was a school night.  Here she is reading her book!

Andre serving

Unhappy Johnny...

Ten Pink Tulip Bulbs, a Lot of Leaves and a Link

Beautiful weather again for digging.  I cleared a spot by the front gate and planted all ten of the Pink Charmeur Tulip bulbs there.   Then I blew all the leaves from the driveway into the back yard and mowed them to bits.  I should have taken before and after pictures and the driveway is covered now as I write this.
I linked someone's blog post today and I have no idea how that works or what good it is.  I need to read up on this.

Love Laugh Quilt: Shaded four patch

Love Laugh Quilt: Shaded four patch

Columbus Day, Mistake Candy

Another beautiful day in the neighborhood.  Miss M. had a day off from school and after getting up later than usual, breakfast, dog walk (she rode her bike), and piano practice (she flew through her new Finger Power exercise on arpeggios and we started with the first half of the first Hanon exercise with no objections), we decided to finally make some candy.

I've wanted to make some 'thermometer' candy with her for a while so she doesn't think everything comes from the store and the weather today was perfect-not humid or anything like that.  I pulled some cookbooks and we started.  What a disaster!  Yes, we got an edible result but one should never begin an unplanned candy making activity.  A definite recipe and the necessary ingredients help much in achieving a satisfactory result.  And no, we didn't start out to make fudge.  The first recipe we followed was awful and I rescued it by cooking it with other ingredients and guessing at amounts.  I even used a candy thermometer-but by then Miss M. had lost all interest.  Yes, it's  a WONDER it turned out at all.

We did some quilting:  she went for a row quilt and I managed a Grandmother's Flower Garden.  That was about the extent of our day.  I don't know what this toy is called, but it provides good finger exercise.

Another week or so and it will be time to put her away for the winter.  This fountain worked so well this year;  I only had to add water several times.  Of course, all the rain we had might have helped with that a bit.  I am considering moving her to another area of the yard next year, but that would involve much work and I won't do it without help from someone.

My Mums and Two Sunflowers

I had to take a break today.  I was so stiff and sore from yesterday's manual labor - I should have taken two pills before sleeping.  So that means there are still thirty Tulip bulbs to plant and, hopefully, this week while the weather is still nice.

The Mum I dug out of the back yard this Spring and put in a pot as a trial plant passed with flying colors.

I love it!  And I think it loves its new sunnier spot.  The color is more vibrant and looks terrific next to the new Sedum.  I should be able to do five more transplants next spring.  They will add a lot to next year's Autumn.  Can you tell I'm excited?  The colors just work together so well.  I disliked greatly these plants in the back yard and I don't think they liked being there either.  So we're both happy.

Here's a picture of the new Mum I bought this year.  It is a dark red and will also look good next year with the pink ones on both sides of it.  There is another one by the front gate which will get the same treatment.

I will also take a piece of the white Mum and find a spot for it in the front.  I have to be careful with it though as I have been babying it along for years now.

Yes, potted sunflowers is the design I chose for the Autumn Wallhanging.  I managed to spend most of the afternoon stitching two of them and still need one more.  This is a wonderful design from PlanetApplique, beautifully stitched and reasonably priced.

It might be too small though, next to the apples and the acorns.  I WONDER why I couldn't see that it was too small when I stitched out my thread order.  I needed to look at it critically then, not later.  I will probably decide to redo all three of them in a larger size and on the Designer 1.  Something that starts out so simple just evolves and evolves causing problems at every step of the way.  I WONDER what I'm going to do with all this experience I'm getting.  Sure can't share it with anyone.

Tulip Bulbs and more Daffodils; Indian Summer

Eighty bulbs have arrived and need to be planted while this weather is so great.  I have wanted to plant more bulbs in the past years, but never feel like planting at this time of the year.  So, these were ordered last spring and I must plant them.  Lucky for me the weather is great and they arrived early in the planting window.


Seventy tulips bulbs.  They are the first in the yard because I am unsure how many years they will do well.  But I thought I would try them and see.

I have early, mid and late.  I planned spots and separated them into planting groups and got started.  I managed to plant half of them and filled a yard waste can with weeds and dead annuals.
One more day to plant the rest-I hope it goes easier on me.



These twenty pink ones were free!

Ten more Daffs!  I just love them in the Spring and plant them where they will be easily seen.  I plant more daffodils every year!  Yes, I do.  That is something I don't 'WONDER' about.










I should have taken a picture of Miss M.'s chalk Jack o' Lantern that is gracing the driveway, but I didn't.  Today Dugan chose to lie down on it.  When he came over to me during my "rest period",  I saw he had orange spots all over him - I wondered about it,  but that was all.  He looked like a Cheeto.  I made the connection when I blew the leaves off the driveway.

Grandparent's Day at ACS, Tulip Bulbs

Presence required again this year at Grandparent's Day.  I am sorry to say I don't enjoy these one bit.  The days have been really boring the past three years and I didn't hold out much hope for anything different this year.

I drove Miss M. to school, a little earlier than usual, came home and walked the dogs, and drove back to school.  Luckily there was plenty of parking and the mini cinnamon rolls and grapes were good.

In the classroom we had to listen to 16 children read their writeup of their interviews with their grandparents.  Some of them had four!  The teacher kept telling them to speak up, but I could hardly hear most of the reading.  Then we had a Smart Board question and sharing time.  This actually went well.  One grandfather, in answer to the question about how school was different back then compared to today, was in tears relating how his school in the Philippines was bombed during the war and classes had to be held in homes that were still standing.  That must have been a horrible memory to cause such an emotional response so many years later.

Finally we were let out of that hot classroom to go to Music and another hot classroom.  We are having Indian Summer this week.  The teacher had a nice lesson on Texture in Music, but after she mentioned it at the beginning, she never referred to it again, so, basically, the activities the kids were doing was never related to adding texture to music.  Hopefully, she does better in an actual class.

In both classrooms, Miss M. was very quiet and was never called on by either teacher.

I was "let go" around 11:30 and could go home and collapse-which I did.  I had to go back and get her of course.

My tulip bulb order has arrived and the box opened-that's all for today.

Sandwiches! Double Framed Star and Kites

Miss M. was home from school with a tummy ache, second absence this year.  I am suspicious she is not as happy in Third Group as she was in Second-but we'll have to see.  I don't want to put any ideas in her head at this point with questioning.  Grandparent's Day is tomorrow and I will be able to get a tiny sense of her classroom dynamics.

Meanwhile, while she was resting on the futon, I sandwiched the two remaining 1930's prints baby quilts.  Here is how I did it, for my future reference.  I used an old sheet laid over my table, marked with lines to center both ways and my remaining can of basting spray.  Those spray cans go a long way and the quilts hold together for months before actual sewing.  I really like spray basting.

I was able to fold each part of the sandwich in turn, spray, lay the next part and SLIDE to get the second half sprayed and sandwiched and SLIDE it back to do the next layer.  It worked really well and fast!  I was finished with both in a half an hour and that included setup and take down.  I was comfortable since I was upright and not crawling around the floor.  Spray basting certainly beats pinning.  When I  finished, the sheet went in the laundry.

I am excited about quilting these two quilts and also anxious to see how long it will take.  My goal for completion is still the end of the month.  Minimal FMQ is planned; I am going to use my walking foot for the Double Framed Star.  Maybe embroider a quilt design on the Kites Quilt or FMQ straight lines,  not sure yet, but I am going to see if an embroidery site has a kite quilt square out there.  The internet is the best resource ever!  Can't imagine doing any of this without it.


I finished the little bit I had to do on the Dresden flower for the Autumn Wallhanging, except for the center circle. I will have to search around here for a circle the right size.  The Dresden will be in a row of appliqued flowers - design still to be chosen from several possibilities.  I am thinking hard about redoing the maple leaf blocks-I so do not like them - but two rows would have to be ripped.

And, oh, I found some more Christmas Mug Rugs to finish.  I thought I was finished and am so bummed.  At least two more days will be required to finish those since I work so slowly and have the fall yard work to do.

Nine Patch/Four Patch is finished!

This is my FMQ experiment and is a dismal failure.





The design I chose to use on the four patch was to heavy for my liking, so I fixed that on the nine patch, right?





 I looked again in my book and decided to just sew on five of the squares.  Well, I didn't like that at all.






This is all taking place over many days and is so discouraging to me.  I chose a different design for the remaining four squares in the nine patch and finished the quilt.

The binding went very well though I must say.  I used the glue and ironing method.  I was very pleased with outcome and the time involved.  I will attach the next binding with Elmer's also.  I did have to locate the glue, since the kids had removed it from my sewing area.

I will be happy to see this one GO.... and am sad I didn't use my walking foot on it.  Lesson learned.