Winter again!!!!

 Look at my poor chairs!  This is a doozy of a storm after so many nice days, but for all of the complaining that I do, it is not flooding, or blowing us tornadoes (although the snow is blowing like crazy.)  That means that the roads are closing too.  I do not like the cold or the wind which is a given here in Wyoming.  These chairs have probably been a subject of several posts in the past, and now sport the pretty red color that I put on them last summer.  They follow me wherever I go as they are authentic from the middle of last century.  I remember my Aunt and Uncle having chairs like these back in the 50's and although reproductions are found today, they are not nearly as sturdy as the ones I have.  And the best part is that they were practically free.  I traded a small chest of drawers, originally an unfinished cheap piece to a wonderful lady (now gone to meet her maker) for them.  The glider needed some repair which the Mr. did, and I removed 4 layers of paint before my first coat.  They have been yellow, blue, and now red.  There is now a couple more inches of snow on them too.

I have been refinishing a singer featherweight wooden case for the last week and I intend to post some pictures in the next few days of the progress.  These wooden cases are as unique as the sewing machines, and I have stained mine now in preparation of painting something on it.  Stay tuned.

Christmas is always when I bake cookies and I bake a lot of them.  I deliverd to my neighbors and with a couple of them away this year, I had extras for us....a lot of extras.  Without my trusty freezer, I had to come up with some way to keep them fresh, so since it was so cold here, I had a cooler normally used for camping, in the garage and one on the deck which doubled as a freezer.  I forgot that they were there after a while, but the Mr. discovered them and we had cookies until recently.  Some of them were biscotti, which are wonderful with coffee as they are a dry, hard cookie, great for dunking.
I wanted a biscotti jar, but couldn't find one so I settled for a glass canister.  One of my favorite shopping places is our local Good Will, which is in a new building and is really nice.  At a recent "shopping trip" there, look what was on a shelf just screaming at me!!!  So for a mere $3.00, it is mine!

With the white fluffy stuff out there, I will indulge in the biscotti and coffee and dream of the day when I can do it on my red vintage glider.

"If you can imagine it, you can achieve it.  If you can dream it, you can become it." ~ William Arthur Ward.

Pincushions and sandpaper

 OK so what do pincushions and sandpaper have in common? Not much except that is what I have been doing in my spare time.  Actually when you are retired like I am, my spare time is anytime I choose for the most part.  But I am making some pincushions for fun and hopefully I will be able to contribute some to the quilt retreat held in Encampment this summer.  I hope also to be able to attend this year.
Our move got in the way last year Anyway, I found these cute little baby Mary Janes at a thrift shop here and this is my first attempt.  I want to make several, not making any two

alike'
Now for the sandpaper....I didn't post a picture today, as I am still sanding on my project, but I have this wonderful little Singer Featherweight sewing machine, from the '50s and it came in it's original case.  I have been seeing these sturdy little cases being re-done.  The fabric covering, which has worn well, but is showing wear can be removed, the wooden case refinished and they are lovely!!!  Sounds easy right?....not so fast.  The glue which was used to adhere the fabric is tough stuff!  Next post will show the process and my perseverance will hopefully result in a gorgeous wooden carrying case for my prized machine!

"Happiness lies in the Joy of achievement and the thrill of creative effort." ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt

Hello Again!

Ok folks, I am finally back on my blog after a year of other things happening in my life.  Most everyone reading this knows that we have relocated back to Cheyenne and that there were some difficult days all year long.  Early in the year we decided that we would have to move closer to Drs. etc.  Selling a home, looking to relocate closer to our children (that didn't happen), having another hip replacement for the Mr., living in a camper in an RV park while boarding 2 dogs and a cat for a month, looking for and buying a home here all took the better part of 6 months.  Then we needed o furnish a home, after deciding not to pay thousands to move everything and we had a dog develop bladder stones which cost us over $1500.00, two surgeries and special food now.  But we dog lovers do love 'em don't we!  Old dogs should have medicare!

So the Mr. has his new pool table and is playing again in leagues, and I have my sewing room pretty much up and running and we have a very valuable dog (at least investment wise).  All is good!

The sewing room brings me back to this blog and this post.  I have again connected with some of my quilting friends here and the Dresdan plate block is my first contribution to a round robin which will be sent to the next quilter in the group.  She will make another block and it continues to be passed month by month until all have had the blocks and returned to me.  It will be exciting to see all of the plate blocks when finished.  By the way, there are 3 groups in the guild from 6-9 or so in each group.

So Valentines Day is tomorrow and yesterday was our 53rd anniversary.  Can't say Wedding Anniversary 'cause we didn't have a wedding.  We were married, but by a Justice with parents and siblings in attendance. It was during the Vietnam War and the draft was notifying all young men that they were being called into service if they weren't exempt. It was a time in our history, somewhat like today, where the nation to most observers, seemed divided.  The Mr., 3 of his brothers, my sister's husband and most of the young men at that time, were called to serve, and like their fathers, they did.
But the welcome home was different.  Only now, after many are gone, are they receiving the gratitude for putting their lives on the line for their country.  I try to remember that united we stand and divided we fall, but it seems we are divided now more than I can recall, even during that war decades ago.  

I will begin my blogging on a lighter note now that I have had my "rant", so keep checking in on me!

 

February

 I have been staying busy, but Lordy, don't know what exactly has kept me busy.  My buddy finished her wreath.  Very pretty! Below is my flying geese quilt, one of two for the Twin beds.  Sorry about not rotating this one.

 This is a better overall picture.  I am so happy with the outcome!  I also have been making a baby quilt for my sister's great grand baby and trying to sort through stuff.  Stuff....you know that amount of accumulation over the years.  The Mr. and I will celebrate our 52nd this month and believe me, we have both accumulated a bunch!  I remember when my parents decided to sell their place where they had lived for 40 years and they just had an auction and took off.  They had spent a few years traveling in a small travel trailer and decided to settle in New Mexico.  It was a world away from where my father had always lived.  We have been so blessed to have had such a long retirement so far and intend to have many more years, but we also need to downsize.  So we have begun to think about what we will do.  I realized that I have too much stuff and need to prioritize my "accumulations".

This year we have had so much snow and we have been unable to keep one side of our driveway open as the wind blows the snow shut constantly.  Our whole division has had difficulty keeping our roads open this winter. If it weren't for the trusty (sometimes) snowblower, and the Mr's ability to still keep it running,  we would be stranded.  I am ready to have someone else do walks and yard work.
Enough of complaining.  I may not be blogging as much now, but stay tuned.

Long winter

It was minus 1 outside when I got out of the sack today and I should be posting pictures of our snowy piece of property.  We have had a lot of wind, which is typical of course, but with the snow, our driveway always drifts.  Our driveway is a very long graveled circular drive and we do not have plows out here as we are a private division.  The snow blower has gotten a lot of use   and this is the first year since we have lived here that we have had this wintry weather.  (Should have known better since we have lived in this area for 45 years.)

We do not experience the kind of gridlock that the eastern part of the country does as we are so

rural.  The snow packed and  icy roads do not deter our activities as everyone here has 4W vehicles, so off to quilting my buddy and I went yesterday.  We are a tough bunch of ladies, trudging through the snow with our heavy sewing machines and one of our quilters is 80 years old.  She is an inspiration to us and was a little late yesterday "because she had to shovel her way out!".

Anyway, with the long winter days, it keeps us busy and we are already preparing for our quilt retreat next summer.  We give away a lot of door prizes, mostly donated by merchants here and handmade by us.  So above is my idea for a sew-

ing caddy.  The red plastic is for watering baby chicks purchased at the ranch supply and the jelly jar fits perfectly inside the center.  I put odd old buttons in the bottom to support the old wooden spools and added a pincushion to the top of the jelly jar which could also hold pins or a tape measure.  Since this is a ranching community, there are a lot of people who have chickens.  I am also working on several more quilts and the LONG WINTER this year affords me much time.

The little dogs and the cat even snuggle together when the cold weather and wind blow snow when they go out, although as you can see by the look on Spencer's face, he is not real happy about having to share his space with Coalette who makes herself at home anyplace.

"Those who bring sunshine to the lives of others cannot keep it from themselves." ~ Sir James Barrie

The Birds

Above, the birds are scrambling for food as we have quite a bit of snow. However, with that comes all of the "debris" that they leave.  I need a hard rain to wash away everything. This is a short post as I am knee deep in other projects...several quilt projects to be exact and I plan to spend the weekend sewing as much as possible.  This quilt above, the twister wreath is the first twister I have done.  I purchased the template at the quilt retreat last August and until one of my twisted sister quilters decided to try the pattern, I had been procrastinating. The directions were not very clear.  But with the help of the others in my group, I decided to tackle it and voila!---I really am pleased with it.  This is a small quilt about 36 X 36, but it would be a great tree skirt or table topper and I may eventually embark on a larger project.

I went with a buddy to Laramie this week for a quilt shop fix and just a few miles along the way, we saw a herd of about 150 elk grazing along the side of the highway.  Always awesome!

Christmas craft

For quite a while, we have had a very white Holiday season.  I Actually think we may be in for some more snow and it has been very cold! However, we do not have the flooding and tornadoes experienced by some of our neighboring states and sympathize with their tragedies and cannot imaging how their Christmas must have been.  Ours was quiet, celebrated with neighbors.  Very peaceful!  This project has been on my bucket list for some years and finally my buddy and I were able to work on these.  Our first attempt using a coat hanger wire to string these on was a complete bust, but we had originally planned to use these foam rings and with hot glue gun in hand and all of the ornament balls we have collected for years, we proceeded.  It was fun and a real success as far as we are concerned.  Mine is the red and gold and the other belongs to my buddy.

Even though we had lots of balls, we still haunted the thrift shop and the dollar store for more.  (After putting away the Christmas trimmings, we found more, but oh well.)

I love mine and I found a place to store it, but it took many more ornaments than we expected, not to mention a lot of hot glue.  We have had many critters tromping in the snow, rabbits and deer and antelope and one lonely spike elk.  A neighbor has a horse, Lola, who stays busy chasing the deer from her hay and the bald eagles are still watching over us from their perch in the tree south of our house.  The animals are all fat so they must be able to forage for enough food, including the bunnies who are ravaging my plants.  We have so many!  Breeding season for the cottontails will begin in February according to the information we have found so we will be competing for the ground plants.

I am quilting like crazy.  We are still meeting on Mondays from 9-3 at our library with machines and fabrics and sharing knowledge.  At least once a month, we go to lunch and are nearly finished with our row by row projects.  One more row and we will each have 11 rows to incorporate in a quilt, each from a different quilter and they are so unique.  What a wonderful way to remember each of these gals whose friendship I have so enjoyed. It is one day we all anxiously await each week.

My wish for all is a safe, healthy, productive new year!

"Friendship is the golden thread that ties all hearts together." ~ Anonymous