Fall camping

We spent last weekend camping. The campgrounds close this weekend. The weather was great on Saturday, it was a perfect fall day. Sunday turned windy and cold and now the camper is ready for winter storage.

Belle asked nicely so we took several walks around the campground, enjoying the fall colors and nice weather. At the end of the day, she was really worn out.

I've taken my sewing machine out camping a few times, but usually try to have something to work on along, like binding or embellishment. I've been working on "crazy quilt" blocks for over a year now and I think I have enough that I'll be able to put them together this winter. The quilt will be more decorative than functional, but it's been fun to experiment with embellishments.

There will be more embroidery to do on the new seams, add some more ribbons, and I think I'll quilt it with a "tie" method. Or maybe use buttons or beads.

Keeping Count

Several years ago, I was visiting with my neighbor's mother, and she showed me her photo albums of all the quilts she'd made. I thought that was a great idea and decided to start doing that. But you know how good intentions sometimes don't exactly get done....

With the holiday season upon us, my son was asking me what I wanted for Christmas. Wanting to save him some money, I told him to make me a screen saver for my computer at work using pictures of some of the quilts I've made. Instead, he just sent me the instructions on how to do it myself! So I've been trying to find pictures of quilts I've made and given away, and taking new pictures of the ones that are still around.

I didn't realize how many I've made, of all sizes and types, some that I wonder why I attempted them when I was just starting. (And my bindings were not good!) I'm missing pictures of a lot of the table runners and wall hangings that I've done. Also on my "missing" list are the ones that I waited to take a picture of, planning on taking a picture with the person I was giving it to.

So my new resolution is to ALWAYS take a picture and print it out, with my notes on where it now lives!

Halloween and my Sewing Machine

I was washing and waxing my vehicle on Saturday morning when I got a phone call from my 4-year nephew. He asked if I could make him a "Curious George" costume for Halloween. So off I went to the fabric store (any reason is a good reason - and they were having a sale!). I printed off a picture of George and spent Sunday morning having fun. Here's a picture
of the finished project, complete with banana. It's off in the mail today, and my "bill" inside told him to have Mom take his picture wearing the costume and send it to me.

While I was at it, I made some gifts for my neighbor and her new baby. A fabric book (pre-print fabric), blocks, burp cloths, and a bag to tote the baby stuff in.








And I finished the quilting and binding on a Halloween wall hanging!


I'm still learning to take a good digital picture, but over all a productive weekend!

My outlook changed

When I was a kid, I had an older cousin who was "different". She would now be classified as "mentally challenged" and would be taught skills so that she could function. 50 years ago, she wasn't sent to school, taught to dress or to feed herself and spent most of everyday sitting in front of the television. She didn't communicate and I was kind of scared of her went we went to visit.

I was given the opportunity to work with some "challenged" individuals through the Scout program. There a some who remind me a lot of my cousin, but I'm not scared anymore. Our society has evolved where handicapped individuals no longer are hidden in our homes. Mainstreaming these individuals in our schools has enabled our children to realize that being "different" is not always a bad thing. The "kids" I work with are between the ages of 20 and 70 and have lots of different abilities. I'm challenged to come up with a program once a month that enables all of them to learn something, have fun, socialize and usually take home a craft of some sort. The nights that we have our group meeting can be hectic, noisy and disorganized, but I come home feeling good, because they approach everything with such a good attitude. I very seldom hear "I Can't" but always "I'll try". And some of them are very creative - their projects turn out much nicer than some of my "examples". Last week we learned about the Iowa Indians and made dance sticks and rattle bracelets. And when I threw in some kazoos, we had a great music fest.

Appoach everything with a positive outlook.

Fall give-a-way

I'm new to this, but you should check out these websites for free quilting things....fun!

http://www.fallintofallquilters.blogspot.com/

http://threadsofconversation.blogspot.com

Inspired Wonderings

Ever wonder how you got to where you are today? Or how long you'll stay there? Stock market is down again today, so I'm hoping I'll stay at my good job for quite a while yet! I need my 401K to bounce back really high!

Lots of things in our lives direct us; our parents, our siblings, our education and those choices that we make, both good and bad. It's never too late to embrace new ideas and try different things.

My new thing is getting ready for a software upgrade, and I'm sorry to say that although the upgrade is six weeks away, I'm already having nightmares (literally). Sad when you wake up at 4:00 am worring about the coding of your accounts!

To relieve my stress, I'm making time to take longer walks with my beagle Annabelle, this is her and her friend Sadie playing.

Also making time for more quilting, but tempering that with restrictions, i.e. if I clean up this, or get this done, then I can play.

Have a good weekend!