Thriftin', sewin' & hailin'

 For the sum of one whole dollar, I found this shelf at the Meals on Wheels thrift mart.  I simply cleaned it and sanded a little to distress it and hung it on my sewing wall with some of my other finds and treasures.

 This "Beary Patches" quilt is an Annette Ornelas pattern.  I fell in love with the pattern when first I saw it and was determined to actually finish it after starting the pattern.  (I will never finish everything I start) It is the perfect size for a wall. I'm thinking though that I want eyes on the bears, so I will start looking for something.

Now I have mentioned the thrift and some of the sew, but the hail?.....On Monday eight of us quilters embarked on a shop hop of sorts.  My car with 4 and another car of 4 left a parking lot near here at about 8:30.  When a group of ladies travel together, there is always a "potty stop" first, and this stop allowed some of us to shop also.  Then we arrived in Lyons Co, which is about 70 or so miles south and like all quilt shops, it is eye candy for a quilter.  We spent a good deal of time there and shopped another gift shop and decided to drive to Berthoud for lunch where we ate at the Train Stop,  I think that was the name of the place.  Anyway, before we left we had been aware of impending bad weather..actually severe weather including tornadoes.  The Laughing Ladies quilt Shop was just around the corner from our lunch stop and as we were shopping, the warnings came over the speakers about rain, wind, hail and tornadoes just a few miles from us including our route back to Cheyenne.  We felt that we might miss them and continued to shop although we encountered people who had been in the hail and wind which we apparently had missed.  We decided to wait a bit and headed to Windsor the Quilter's Stash, another great shop.  We passed areas that had been hit with heavy rains, but encountered none and as we continued to shop for fabric there, more warnings came over the speakers.  We left and had heard that there was a great ice cream shop on the way (who doesn't like a treat?) and we stopped at Freddies and all had yummy for the tummy things.  By this time, we could see the storm north and moving that way so onward we drove reaching the parking lot at about 5 I think.  4 of the gals had left their cars parked in the lot.  ALL were damaged..windshields, sun roofs, pitted hoods, tops etc. The Mr. had been shoveling hail...mostly small stuff but he had some golf ball sized pieces in the freezer.  There was damage to homes from tornadoes east of us and lots of vehicle damage here, but in our trek to shop for fabric, we just avoided every bit of bad weather.  I feel so bad for the 4 gals who left their vehicles here. However, it was a great day and a wonderful bunch of ladies to quilt shop hop with me.

" I am not afraid of storms for I am learning how to sail my ship." ~ Louisa May Alcott

More leather

 So, I have to get busy with the camera and start posting something else.....lots of stuff happening here and yet it seems like nothing going on.  I have a table that I need to start painting as I have it sanded and just need to get it done.  The Mr. has had to take a few days to make some repairs here too.  First of all, when the water system was turned on, we had a major leak in a valve box.  That involved digging out 3 large buckets of soil in order to determine where the leak was.  After lots of trouble shooting, and replacing a hose clamp (which meant a trip to the home repair place), the problem became a little more complicated and finally the discovery that a valve had been taken apart and apparently replaced incorrectly solved that issue.  The Mr. is very good at home repair.

Then, I was concerned that we had ghosts.  An unusual noise was occurring periodically from the basement. Mind you, this noise was like nothing I had ever heard and kind of creepy.  In addition, it only lasted a few seconds...not long enough to tell from where it was coming.  Also the Mr. was not hearing it...partly because his hearing is not what it used to be and partly because it was not very loud. So it was on me.  Finally, after a few days, he did hear it.  We have never had a ghost although I did hear of spirits in Rawlins when we lived there and even read a book which was published about the Rawlins ghosts.  Anyway, we have had lots of rain lately, and I finally discovered that it was coming from the furnace room and from the sump pump. It was doing the job for which it was intended to do. We had a sump pump in one home, but I never had occasion to hear it.  Then, he spent most of the afternoon changing out a ceiling fan in the master bedroom.  Try sleeping with a squeaking fan!  We have about 7 fans in the ceilings here and so he decided to take a good one from a very small room (he calls it his hide-y hole).  That meant changing out the light fixture also, so now we need another trip the the home improvement store for a new light fixture.  What next?

Above, the first photo is a piece of the strap with the barbed wire stamp which he decided to use and the second shows the initials on a wider part of the stamp.  All of these pics show the raw state of the leather and eventually, all will be dyed. Hopefully he will be able to get back to the quiver.

"No day is so bad it can't be fixed with a nap." ~ Carrie Snow

More Leather

 Actually, this is the featherweight case and the last post had a rose in the center that I hated.  So I guess I just should not try roses.  However, I like to paint daisies.  Much, much happier with this.

 The next three pictures show the preparation for stitching the bottom piece to the main body of the quiver.  The Mr. tacked the leather back to the wood to stabilize it and scribed the line to be stitched. The stitching spaces were impressed into the leather and the piece then trimmed.

We took the dogs to the park yesterday and since this is a holiday weekend and the weather was good, the park was  a busy place.  Lots of people were walking dogs and the picnic crowd was there.  Because the lake always attracts those who like to fish, as we walked around it, there were lots of anglers.  It was a family affair and so nice to see so many young kiddos trying their luck at catching the "big one".

"Give a man a fish and he eats for a day.  Teach him how to fish and you get rid of him for the whole weekend." ~ Zenna Schaffer

Leather quiver

 This is Memorial Day Weekend......and this Mr. along with his son, 3 of his brothers, and his father before him, served in the armed forces...all but one in the Navy.  That brother just got married so we wish him all the best and thank them all for their service, even though two are deceased.  It is amazing how so many people, and the younger generation especially, come up to the Mr. when we are out and about, to thank him for his service.  Much, much different from the time the 4 brothers served during the Viet Nam war.  The draft was still in force and most young men were called to service...and enlisted or were drafted.  It was serving your country like your fathers.

A niece who has become close to her uncle, the Mr., has asked him if he would make her a quiver for her arrows.
He is very talented and has done a considerable amount of leather work.  She sent him a drafted pattern and left the design details to him.  I will post the progress as it is a rather involved process.  The first photo shows the leather in the first stage as a solid piece of hide. This piece will be the bottom of the quiver.  He fashioned a piece of wood per the pattern first and then cut and stretched a wet piece of hide, tacked down, to the wood to dry.

 The tacks were then removed, and re tacked in a few places, to scribe the area which will be the stitching line.

There will be more to come as this piece evolves..and is trimmed.

Mama and Papa goose and babies

 This is just a quick post as we have a new computer and I am trying to figure out how it differs from the other one.  Finally after over 12 inches of snow, we have 70 degree weather and were able to take the dogs to the park.  Surprisingly, we encountered two pair of geese with babies.  This was an older flock of babies, and the smaller bunch, just nearby, were being closely watched by mom and dad and were actually prepared to approach us.

I have more to blog, but at least for today, I have successfully downloaded pictures from the phone--actually, the Mr. did it for me.  He took the pictures.  As usual, I did not have my phone..and didn't know where it was. So this goose family is surely a sign that better weather lies ahead!

Silver spoon and Mother's Day

I am not very creative with my title but I have wanted to clean out some of my photos so here is an example of my need to display this silver piece.  It was given to me a few years ago from my sister-in-law who had a lot of things from family and for some reason she wanted me to have it.  It is very pretty and I think it is pretty old...guess I should research the pattern.  I found the frame at the thrift shop and backed the spoon with batting and fabric and hung it upside down (or right side up) whichever you choose, and realized after it hung for a few days that I like it better this way.  So it no longer sits in a drawer and I like it as a piece of art. 

This is such a busy month for me...first of all, it is MY birthday month, but aside from that....4 quilting dates, 2 of which I cannot attend because of prior dates, dentist checkup, bone scans etc. (all OK), my son's birthday, two lunch groups, two visits from friends, Oh and Mother's Day!  My calendar is so full!  Don't forget Mother's Day if your mother is still around.  The Mr. and I lost ours several years ago, but it amazes me that so many of my friends are fortunate to have theirs here to celebrate.  Strong  ladies are living longer and longer and my goal is to do that long enough to cause
much more laughter among friends when I do something silly.  (you get to blame a lot of things on old age) Happy Mother's Day!

Weather report etc.

 Oh my gosh!  We are finally getting some nice drizzle!  It has been threatening for several days and now things are beginning to green up.  The wind has blown, (so what is new?) but we did not get the nasty hail that happened south of us yesterday.  We typically get hail so we had out fingers and toes crossed.  Our neighbors who winter in Tuscon, got back last weekend and said it was 104 the day they left, and we did have some near 80 weather here this past few days, but it is hovering around the high 50's and low 60's now.  So much for the weather report.  So above is the blank canvas that I picked up at the Goodwill a few months ago for a couple of bucks.  I painted over the mustard color originally on it when I purchased it and had a project in mind, but changed my mind.  My painting buddy lives here now and although we haven't painted on a regular basis for years, we have been able to get together for a couple of Fridays.  So below the basket quilt picture, you will find what in two days I was able to do.  I feel a bit rusty, but hopefully in the fall, we will be able to resume.  She has a great space in her basement for a studio, but is having some of the basement finished in a week or so, which will make our space unusable for a couple of months.

 This is the 4th basket quilt square....and we got the pattern for the next one.  Challenge is to use plaids and stripes.

Isn't he just adorable?  The picture doesn't really do him justice, but then, I have never claimed to be a photographer.  This one is awake of course, but I actually hung this in our bedroom above the beds. I love to paint, but I also like to sew (for me it is therapy) and I cannot even count the things I have tried..and felt happy doing.  (Cake decorating has taken a tole on my hands, but I enjoyed it.)  I have a friend who got me into many ventures...we took a tailoring class, learned ceramics..I even had a kiln, and she would always say..."I know you can do it".  Stained glass kept me involved for many years and I have had gardens and dug ground for backyard pools.  In fact, I would like one here, but that may be a pipe dream.

"Of course I can do anytthing, I'm a mother." ~ unknown