Productive Hexie Weekend

I had a very productive Hexie weekend. I spent the day Saturday ice fishing with my husband. He fished, I hexied. I finished basting 80+ of my sewing themed hexies, until the bag was too small to hold them.

I sewed together, Ahhhh's #3 & #2

I finished basting more of my buggy barn hexies too.



Last night we found out Paul's dad is coming for Mathew's baptism, so I whipped up this little wall hanging for him. I think he'll like having the family picture of us. I'm getting excited for this weekend.

I also quilted my teacups quilt and should finish the binding on it this afternoon. I'm having a productive week and it's only just begun.

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.

Mom's Birthday

Thursday night my bro called and invited hubby and I to join his family and our parents at the river fishing and camping to celebrate mom's birthday. We couldn't decide whether to go or not, mostly because Paul wanted to install the neighbors windows and I had a paper due Sun. night I hadn't started. Alas, late Fri. night we decided to go. The neighbors had company, so he couldn't do the windows.  We got up Sat. morning, had breakfast, and packed for the trip. We were at my parents in time for lunch, then naps, and hubby and my dad went to get the camper hooked up. I baked mom a birthday cake while they were gone.
My bro & his family arrived around 5 and we headed to the river. Everyone, except my parents went swimming in the river. It's running pretty slow now, but was a bit muddy. My niece had her life jacket on and was so super cute! At 96 degrees it sure felt good! After swimming we fixed supper on the grill. Hubby and my dad were both fishing and each caught a fish. Some clouds moved over and gave us this gorgeous sunset.

We had just gone up to change into jeans and get our fishing poles as it was finally dark, when out of nowhere a downpour of rain got us! We quickly loaded up the chairs and our stuff and headed for home. Where we were there is a lot of dirt and we didn't want the campers stuck. There is no cell service down there either. It poured all the way home!  We ended up taking the coolers in and a few friends came over and we sat around and visited late into the night!
We went to church the next morning and had breakfast before my bro's family went home.  After lunch, hubby and I shared the cake I made with mom and dad.  Today is mom's birthday, so we were celebrating early. I used a heart shaped bundt cake pan to make the german chocolate cake with coconut frosting, my mom's absolute favorite cake. This is the first time I've used the pan where the whole cake came out without sticking! My dad insisted I take a picture of it!

After lunch hubby and I headed home. We got home around 3 and had time for a nap before I started on my paper. I got the 8 page paper done in just 5 hours and I felt good about it. I'm so glad that we went with my family camping as we had lots of fun, even if it did pour on us.

Baby Quilts

It's been a slow week in my sewing studio. I haven't gotten much accomplished. Last weekend I quilted up two baby quilt tops. They are panels and I've had them for quite a while. I just decided to get them done and put binding on so they would be ready when I need them. I quilted both with an all over meander. I used a blue/gold verigated Rainbows thread on top and a gold king tut on the bottom. I'm really pleased with how they turned out.

A close up of the grader. My dad drives a grader, so I always think of him when I'm work with this fabric.

I also got the top and bottom borders on the Wanna Be a Cowboy quilt. It's ready to quilt now and I have the backing. I can't decide whether I like the red or not. I think it's a bit too much. I have enough to make another top, so I might do that before I quilt them. I bought bamboo Legacy batting that I want to use in this one, so I'm excited to try it.


We've had some great news all around in our family the past few weeks, so I've been enjoying it all. We're planning to go to my parents this weekend for our annual branding weekend. I can't wait! I love being out in the fresh air and around all of our extended family. We're also planning our first fishing trip of the year this weekend, so we're all looking forward to it as well. It's going to be a fun family weekend.

Paul's Mounted Fish

After 9 months of waiting, the day finally arrived for Paul to pick up his mounted large mouth bass from the taxidermist. He was so excited and it's way bigger than I remember. He caught it last year, 4th of July weekend at my Uncle Tom's dam. The whole family was out there fishing and frying. I did more of the frying than the fishing, but it was still fun. I took lots of pictures of my niece trying to hold the pole. She was just starting to walk then. We always have so much fun fishing with my family. Usually we go catfishing, but last year there was too much flooding, so it wasn't good at the river.
He hung it on our living room wall. The same guy is doing his deer head mount, but it will be another few months before it is done.



While we had upper 40's today, my parents are still in the blizzard area. They had 20+ inches of snow this week and lots of blowing wind. My parents were snowed in as were my brother and family. It's so hard to believe that we have dry streets and they have blocked roads. Maybe by Mother's Day the snow will be gone out there. We still have a 2 foot drift in our front yard, but it's slowly going away.  

Embroidery Names

This weekend we spent at my parents. On the agenda was embroidery on mom's machine. I had this panel I wanted to put a name on and it went on so easily. I designed it on the computer and sent it to the machine and it worked so well.

So then I did another one on the embroidery machine. This one was a little trickier! It worked out well though.

Then I did my brothers cap and sweatshirt. It actually worked out pretty well and I was able to get them both done.
Sat. night we all went fishing at the river. I caught 1 and Paul caught 3 catfish. On Sunday morning we went shooting at my brothers. I hit a few clay pigeons and we shot through a whole box and a half. We picked wild plums in the afternoon so dad could make jelly this week. The weekend went by very quickly, but it was a lot of fun.

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.

New Colts & The River & Mom's Quilt Racks

On Mother's Day, after lunch and a nap, we went by my cousin Tommy & Alice's place and saw Alice's new colts. She has about a half dozen so far. They are so pretty to look at, but they were hungry and mostly hid from me. They are in the pen between two barns and the windbreak protects them.


Then we headed down to the Cheyenne River. We went to a bit different spot because it had rained and we couldn't get to our normal spot because it is all curvy dirt roads. This was a great spot and easy to get to, but the river had come out of the banks about a month ago, so we had to be careful of the cut banks. The first two are pictures as we were coming down the hill to the river. The Cheyenne River is a major river in SD and eventually flows in to the Missouri river north of Pierre, which then flows in to the Mississippi.

On the left side of the picture you can see the cut banks. The river was completely over the sand bars on the right side of the picture from all runoff of all the snow/rain/blizzards we had this winter.

The river was clear back in those trees for quite a ways too. We were fishing by the trees. It's about 6 foot down to the river, so it was definately really high and fast moving when it came out over the banks. It was really peaceful down there, but since it was mid day we didn't catch much. Catfish like the early morning or late night. We'll probably end up going back later this year.

After fishing we went back to mom and dad's for supper. Paul had hung mom's quilt rack he had made for her for Mother's Day on the wall. This is the prototype, but he's planning to make more, just has to work on the design a bit.

We centered it under the heater, but the china cabinet has to move. We hung it there until we have a bit more time to move it. This quilt is a friendship quilt from the Wall Quilt Guild. It has a pocket in each heart for a little special gift from each member, so it needed to hang upright.

This is the standing quilt rack he made her for Christmas. It's a heart shape and the quilt hangs through it. This one is a friendship quilt from the Black Hills Quilters Guild.