Wow!! I can’t believe that I have not added anything to my blog since the first week of November. It is not that we aren’t doing things, but rather the laziness to sit and do the updating. So here goes with the month of November.
We went to Casa Grande the first of the month and found a field of cotton being harvested. Wow…the machinery is humongous. I was in awe at the way the cotton is picked. The owner of the field stopped by and told us all about the process of cotton growing and picking. What I found interesting is when the cotton is ginned 2/3 of the cotton boll is waste. A bale of unginned cotton weighs 18,000 pounds. I didn’t have my camera with me, but took these pictures with my phone.
These two pictures are of them releasing the bale of cotton from the tamping machine.
On Veteran’s Day free dinner was given to the Vet’s at several restaurants in the valley. We chose to go to the Golden Corral in Casa Grande and we stood in line for 45 minutes before we made it inside of the building. The food was good and we did enjoy the night.
Dick was able to get into the VA Hospital in Phoenix the first part of November which was 3 months earlier than his appointed time. How thankful we are that he has good medical coverage. We will be able to transfer him to the Mesa Clinic which is closer to our house.
Our Evan girl turned seven on the 9th. I made her a quilt to wrap up in on cool evenings. It was made from some fabric that Kelly bought to make a quilt for Evan before she was born. Well I decided that she needed a new blanket from her Grammy so used that fabric. Man does she love the blanket and sleeps with it every night. I forgot to take a picture of it before I sent the package.
I have been busy making a new style of dress for a yard sale that we are hoping to have this next weekend. They are so cute and are made out of a t shirt and then you sew a circle skirt on to it. This is the first one I made and gave to Payton. Man she looked so cute in it. I have four of them done and want to make 3 more before the yard sale.
Thanksgiving was very fun as we spent the time with the Curry/Bierhaus family. Our dinner was early in the afternoon so our two shoppers could go stand in line to get new computers. Wally World had a deal on a computer and sweet Nolan stood in line for Grandpa and Elton went for Brook. They got in line at 3 and the sale did not open until 10. They were #’s 3 & 4. Elton did get two stools from the home department for them to sit on. Thanks guys for helping these two get new computers.
We are slowly getting the Christmas decorations up. Our first tree that Dick got ($20) looked worse than a Charlie Brown tree so he loaded it up and we found a tree on sale that really is pretty. I did an old traditional tree and only have homemade ornaments on it this year. I am please with the way it looks. I still have the nativity scenes to put out and the village.
I was not able to go to Mom’s birthday party over the Thanksgiving weekend, but did send the quilt I made for her. This quilt was a challenge for me. I made the center, got it all appliqued and started putting on the strips and after 11 rows it dawns on me that this quilt is not square at all. I take it to the bed and lo and behold if the upper and lower edges aren’t 2 inches on each side larger than the middle. I rip out each row clear down to the center again. Once more I begin putting on the strips and I measure each row so carefully . I got to the last three rows and it seemed like everything was okay and WHAM something happened and the quilt started having problems once more. This time I just said to heck with it and finished the quilt. Dick said no one would notice, but I knew in my heart that Mom would. Being that it was for my Mom, my heart was broken and I was so disappointed that I had to send her an imperfect creation. I washed the quilt to give it a worn look like all the quilters are doing now and it did take some of the unevenness out and was not as noticeable. This is the quilt before washing.
I have a utensil drawer that has been bugging me so bad for years. When we moved down here it just seemed to be worse (only in my mind) so one day Dick made me a neat organizer unit including a compartment for my knives to stand in. Man I love this guy and his crafty ideas that help make me a happy camper. Don’t you think the end result looks much neater?
We received another granddogger at Thanksgiving when the Madsen’s got their new baby while in Georgia for the holiday. She is a sweet little Yorkie and they named her Darby.
The last two months have been busy quilting months for me. Hayden decided that he wanted a blankie to wrap up in and found some fabric in my stash for his. When I delivered his blanket, Payton was so unhappy and just pouted so when I got home I made her one. Well there was one more little girl that was sad so the next week I made one for Brea.
I have finally finished my Christmas quilt and am so please with the end result. It took me 11 years to complete it and it went from a queen to a wall quilt with a table runner and a candle mat. I did not have enough of the printed fabric to make it any larger than a full quilt. I love it on the wall as the pattern has a totally different design than what was originally planned. The patterns used are Cheerio and Northern Lights. The pieces are machine quilted using the orange peel design. I love these three new items to add to my Christmas décor.
Well that takes care of November and a very productive month of sewing and quilting. The month of December is all about the holiday so will be doing more of the traditional baking and candy making. Oh how I love the holidays.
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