Flowers

Friends and family sent lots of flowers to mom's funeral and they were all beautiful. The Class of '98 sent these orange and white flowers. Our school colors were orange and black. 

They also remembered me on my birthday with a beautiful purple carnation. I was so touched by my classmates thoughtfulness.

My quilting friends Jenn, Gaila, and Shonna sent this beautiful arrangement. I'm so grateful to have such wonderful friends who are so supportive.

We had the comfort signature quilt that the Cre8tive group, Jen, Regina, and Patti made for mom last year with her flowers. It turned out so great with the signatures of so many supporters of mom. There were two benefit breakfasts and a benefit pie social where friends and family signed the quilt. I love going back and reading all the messages on it.

When I got home there were two flower shops trying to deliver plants. This bonsie plant is from Dr. Kerr and NAU. It is really cool and I look forward to having it in my office at work when I return in 2 weeks.

The Registrar's Office sent this Peace Lily which is my absolute favorite plant. This one is huge in comparison to one's I've had before. It's almost 3 feet tall. I'm so glad they were delivered to the house so I didn't have to try and get them home. We had no room when we returned, the car was packed to the hilt!

All our MN cousins were with us for the day. We always try to take a picture of all of us together when we're gathered. My family is on the top row and the cousins are on the bottom row.

Aunt Vi's Double Knit Quilt

Last week I was bound and determined to finish Aunt Vi's Double Knit quilt. I made the backing and loaded the quilt on Tues. night. I got about 3 passes done when I realized the last pass had bad tension, so I took it out. I couldn't figure out what was wrong, so I left it. It was a case of after 10 PM and tired does not make a quilter think straight!  Wed. night I figured out that it just needed to be rethreaded and did a few more passes. I figured if I did about 4 passes a night I could finish in a week. If you haven't worked with Double Knit, it's not fun! It stretches various ways and shifts horribly. But I was determined! Thurs. night I started to do a couple passes and when I was just ready to quit, I realized I only had 2 -3 passes left, so I finished it up and took it off the frame!
I used a blue varigated Robinson Anton thread in both the top and bobbin which worked really well. It turned out awesome, although I went through 10 bobbins! I couldn't get quite 2 passes per bobbin. I realized I should have used bottomline, but oh well, live and learn. I still have a huge cone of the stuff to get rid of.



It was such a rush to finish the quilt that I trimmed it up and packed it up to go to my parents this weekend. Mom and I cut out the binding and I put it on at her house. I still have to sew it to the top, but it will only take me a half hour or so to do that tonight. I'm so glad to have this one finished. Mom is working on a second and third top, so I'm not done by any means, but the next one I think I'm going to just quilt wavy lines through the 9 patch blocks.
It was such a good weekend! The Grand Opening of Fabric City was held on Fri/Sat. There was a Pattern Party by Karri of Blank Quilting and I learned some cool new ideas to use with the 60* ruler. Saturday we had a parade and demos. The crowd was huge and everyone was having a great time. The sale was awesome and I think everyone enjoyed taking home a few new items. It was a fun day!
Sat. night Paul and I went to my parents. I had taken 3 projects I needed mom's big cutting table for. Sat. night I cut out a baby blanket and got it pinned. I hope to get it sewn up in the next few days and then I can show you what we'll be having. I also cut and bound Vi's quilt Sat. night. Sunday, with the "help" of my niece, my mom helped me stack the Cowgirl fabric for a One Block Wonder quilt. I'm so looking forward to starting it. I ended up having to bring about 3 rows home that still need to be cut into triangles, but they are pinned well! It took me about 2 hours to press and cut it out.
Paul and my dad went hunting Sun. morning and got a grouse and several prairie dogs, so Paul was happy, but his shot gun broke, so he'll have to get a new one. He borrowed a gun from my brother and went hunting with my bro and SIL  mid morning and again after lunch for pheasants. It was opening weekend, but they didn't have much luck.
We got back last night in time for me to finish my paper and get it submitted for my class. Paul got packed up and is gone for another week now. I have class 2 nights and a fun sewing night with my friend Jenn scheduled! I'm so looking forward to sewing with her.

Fishing & Floating Weekend

This past weekend we were at my parents again, so we could go fishing. My brother called earlier in the week and wanted to know if we wanted to go tubing down the river. I asked my Dr. and she said it was fine to go, so Paul and I went hunting for tubes. It was a challenge to say the least! I guess it was too late in the season, but we finally found the perfect ones. I also found some water shoes, you know the kind that was popular back in the 90's?? They were great because we did a lot of walking in mud/water/sand/rocks to get into the river and also to get off the sand bars. Sat. afternoon we headed to the river and set up camp. My brother and SIL and her whole family were going to camp, so they got set up. We all changed, blew up the tubes and 7 of us went in my dad's pickup about a mile and a half up the river where he dropped us off and we got in the river. We got in about where the left side of this picture is. I took the pictures from on top of the hill as we were going down.

We floated down the river and half went on the east side of this bend and the other half went on the west side. Needless to say I was on the slow east side. We did finally make it, but it was more work trying to paddle with my arms to get  going.

We were on the river for 3 hours and got back to camp about 7PM. Our camp was where the big patch of dark green trees start and it looks like the river ends in this picture.

Paul really enjoyed just floating along.

 I did too. It was very relaxing and lots of fun. Although I was very sore from moving my arm muscles that do not ever get that much use!

My dad kept watch on the fishing poles while we were gone.  He caught one fairly big one and when we got back Paul caught a huge one. It was 5.5lbs.

Paul and I fished on the shore line while everyone visited. We went back to my parents around 10 as we were exhausted from tubing.

Sunday morning I went with my parents to 7AM church and then we changed and went back to the river.  We went tubing again, leaving at 10AM and it only took us 2 hours to get back. We had the river figured out and it went much quicker.It was so much fun! Paul & my bro both got their white beer bellies a bit fried though!  Paul, my bro, and my dad skinned and filleted the fish they caught before we headed back to my parents.


Paul and I headed home mid afternoon as I had a paper to write for my class. I feel like a broken record. I'm always writing a paper for class and usually on the weekends we want to be gone. I have another one due next weekend and I'm going to a wedding, so I best get busy on it. I'm a procrastinator! I decided to take another grad class for fall and then take the winter term off.
Monday night I went with my parents to meet my mom's Uncle Arlie & Aunt Mae at a campground south of town. We had a picnic with family and enjoyed visiting for the evening. It was so relaxing. Aunt Mae has always wanted to see my quilt frame, so on Tues. I invited mom and Mae out to see it. On my way home from work I was rear-ended, so I had to wait for the cop to fill out the police report. Luckily the lady had insurance and I was able to go to the Dr. yesterday and everything was fine. Her insurance will fix my bumper and some warning lights that came on, but otherwise no major damage. I feel so lucky. Mom and Mae visited the Sewing Center and got help with her embroidery and also went around Hobby Lobby for a while. They did come out later and got to see my sewing studio and machines. Mae was so impressed and can now understand how I get so much done. I'm so glad we got to visit with her while she was out.
It's been a long week and I'm looking forward to the weekend so I can relax a bit. We're hoping to go to the fair as it kicks off this weekend.

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day to my Amazing mom Delia! She is the strongest, most courageous woman I know. She is truly my inspiration, guiding light, and best girl friend. We do so much together and laugh the whole time. She taught me everything I know about sewing and quilting, starting when I was 7 years old. There isn't a thing she can't sew. We did draw the line at my wedding dress, since we are both procrastinators and didn't want to rush it at the end.
Each and every day I thank God for giving me this amazing woman to raise and nurture me throughout my life. I wouldn't be who I am today without her encouragement and support.
I love you Mom!

Today my mom had her entire family together for lunch and we played tourists in Wall. It was so nice to spend the day with my brothers, spouses, niece, and my parents.

Fast & Furious Weekend

Last weekend we were at my parents. My dad was in the community play. Don't Stop for Daisies. It was set in Britain. Three old ladies move into an old house, where the owner dies and they hide him in the dried up well. They have all escaped from the old ladies home and are believed to be dead. The handy man comes and inspects the well and finds the body. He's just seen the body. The old man is an uncle to the young girl.
She's convinced her uncle was murdered by the 3 old ladies and is freaking out. My dad is the policeman and it was at night, so he has his robe on.

The good dr. in his robe too. They think she's crazy because the old ladies gave her sleeping pills to shut her up.

The guys think she's just crazy so they aren't too concerned.

Paul and dad helped my bro & SIL tin the barn roof all weekend. Ed & Jessie came on Sunday for the play and Ed helped them finish up the barn. Paul and Ed were cutting the last piece to put on the barn.

Here the guys are installing the last piece.

 Paul rode down with my mom Fri. night, so they could get an early start on Sat. I worked on Sat. and then came down after work. We all went to the play Sat. night. My niece is just starting to say words very clearly, so when the guy had a gun she said uh oh. Then another time she said oh no. It was histerical! She would say it when it was dead silent, so everyone would hear her. When my dad came on stage she said papa.  The play was very funny and it's really great that the community comes together to put the performance on 3 times. On Sunday mom and I went with the guys and watched my niece. She's such a cutie. Mom played with her while I wrote my paper. I got a good start on it, but spent most of the night working on it after we got home. I got a 99% on it! I was so excited since it was my first paper for my graduate class.
This weekend I'm off work and hoping to sew for the greater majority of it. I need to start on my next paper, but I plan to do lots of sewing. It's retreat weekend and since I didn't go this year, I'll be sewing virtually with my blogging friends who are there. The use of IM and the webcam will keep us all up to date on our progress. I'm planning to work on a Grids & Grommets purse, my snowball blocks for the quilt along, and a binder cover for my school binder.

Butchering Chickens!

This weekend mom and I were asked to do a quilting demo/quilt show at the County Fair. It went really well on Saturday and I think those that attended learned a lot. We did two different demos, Quilting for the Clueless and Bags, Bags, Bags. After the demos, we shopped in the variety store and found some great fabrics we don't have at the shop. It's always fun to go there as I got fabric and Paul got fishing lures. The store has everything! We had supper and then headed for my parents place. We got changed and loaded up the pickups met up with a cousin, my bro, and my niece and we headed for the river to go fishing. We left about 7PM and it was the perfect evening. There was no wind, it was cool, and there was a full, bright moon. We caught about 10 and they cleaned them about 10:30... but then we caught 5 more and it was about 12:30 before they cleaned the next batch. I caught a 1.6 pound catfish! By 1AM we left for my parents. By the time we got to bed it was nearly 2! My bro asked if we'd help butcher chickens the next morning and I said sure if I got one. Dad and I headed down to my bros at 9 on Sun. morning. I've included a few pictures of the process, but it may be a bit grose, so procede with caution!
We were greeted by the roosters and a few hens. My bro caught the hens. Dad and I held them by the legs to carry them out of the barn.

Holding 2 roosters in my hand.

Then my bro hung them up and cut the throats.

Then he scalded them to get the feathers to come loose.

Dad, SIL, and I picked the feathers from the birds. We did 10 total birds.

This is the first bird I cleaned myself. It's a big roaster bird! It's about the size of a small turkey.

We cleaned them and brazed the hair off and then put them in the cooler. We put them in water and froze the birds to eat over the course of the next year. It was an interesting experience and I learned a lot. It was really hot, 90, but with a breeze it wasn't so bad in the shade. It got to 102 in the afternoon. We got done about 1PM and then went back to my parents where Dad, Paul, and fixed lunch for my mom's birthday. Mom and I had a very enjoyable time visiting and pulling out a few UFO's to work on. We came home early as we knew we would have to deal with the biker traffic. The Sturgis Motorcycle Rally started today and there are a ton of bikers out and about in the area.

Fishing for Dad's Birthday

This weekend we headed to my parents as our niece was being baptized Sat. night. After Mass we headed to the river as it was my dad's birthday and he wanted to go fishing. We fished until midnight.
Sunday morning we were up at 6AM! Way before it's healthy to get out of bed or care what one looks like. My little bro was having really good luck as he caught 40+ pounds of catfish. This was the biggest one he caught, 11 pounds! He stood it up next to our niece and it was bigger than she is.


I had a ton of nibbles, but this is the only one I caught. It was 5oz, so I threw it back. It was the smallest one we caught. Most were 2+ pounds, but averaged about 7 lbs. My other bro is going to smoke them, so we'll eat them later. This is they Cheyenne River in the background. My parents live about 10 miles from it, so go often when we are home at this time of year. When the cotton starts flying is when we have the best luck and it's just starting to fly.

I was headed to get more shrimp for bait. I'm standing next to the bank and it's about 10 foot down to the river. Mom was the official photographer, scale holder, pliers holder. She had a hat, so didn't get sunburned like I did. I'm toasty red.

About 11 the fish quit biting, so we went back to my parents and the guys cleaned the fish and the girls cooked lunch. Then it was nap time. It's exhausting going fishing! Mom helped me lay out my One Block Wonder and I got it all cut out before we headed home.