Life happens...

Just when you think you've gotten everything together and figured out...along comes something else... My keyword for this year, if I remember correctly, was, "flexible"... And I don't mean the acrobatic kind of flexible... I mean the, "Roll with the punches" variety of flexible...  The kind of flexible you need when the sick people in your house turns into the sick you kind of thing. (Sinusitis) The new camping trailer called for a new truck to tow it kind of thing. The several nights in a row of missing out on a good nights sleep kind of thing.... The having a t-shirt quilt needing finished, a finished quilt needing taken to Lamesa, a quilt repair needing worked on, a quilt not started needing finished by August 8th, another quilt not started needing finished by the end of September, a box of 24 hospital sheets needing altered, a garden full of beans and blackeyed peas needing picked  snapped and canned, and a hubby chomping at the bit to take me to the lake to get away from it all...starting Monday, for 6 days, kind of thing, the grandkids will be back in two weeks for the rest of the summer kind of thing...the, I should be at the church with my hubby and others helping with a day of deep cleaning and putting down carpet on the front steps, but I'm not, I'm home sick, so maybe I can rest up today enough to make it to church tomorrow kind of thing.... There, I feel better... Thanks for listening...  

Proctor Lake with grandkids

The oldest two grandkids, Pa and I are at Lake Proctor camping in our Hideout camping trailer! We're watching RV on the flatscreen...and laughing uncontrolably ...ahem...as I flooded the floor while setting up the water...True Story! 😝

Seriously, we're having a blast...no permanent damage from the water...I hope! Doesn't the trailer and Truck look nice?

The lake had to stop letting water out down stream because there has been so much flooding down in the lower lakes of the Brazos River....Soo, Proctor Lake is over full and getting fuller. I think I'll take pictures of the same landmarks every day to show how much the lake level rises over the next few days... Here are a couple sites I thought would show the rise. If there isn't any rain on the upper watershed, there won't be any rise...if there is rain up River, then it aught to be pretty interesting around here....

I sure wish Coleman Lake, Hords Creek Lake and O H Ivey looked like this!

Proctor Lake Day 2

Yesterday I said the lake would come up if we got rain on the watershed...well, we got a doozy of a storm. High winds, lightening, rain... We spent 30 minutes sitting in the truck while the camper was rocking until the wind calmed a bit. Early this morning, we walked around and this is what those two sites look like... And it's steadily rising!

The park attendant said this morning that the Army Corp of Engineers is most likely going to evacuate the campground today as lots more runoff is heading this way... Our site is on higher ground and wouldn't likely flood, but we'd be stranded on an island without electricity for however long it took for the water to recede... And there's still lots of rain in the forecast! So now the dilima is, do we go ahead and pack up...or try to catch a big catfish (they're spawning now) before we  go?

Snake!

Yep! Pa killed it...just glad I didn't hit it with the mower!

Not sure but it looks like a rat snake to me....  Snakes are not

On my friend list!

How's the new potty room coming?

Now that the cement has fully cured, ahem, we're putting up the framing.,. Pa's been working hard!

Rachel found a Singer!

At a garage sale in Waco...Singer 638 in a beautiful cabinet!

  

2nd CPS Quilt in as many days!

Used fleece for the backing without any batting to keep it lighter weight...

Just did a large meander on it... Finished the binding tonight...

CPS Donation Quilt...

A good friend had a quilt top given to her and she passed it on to me to quilt for charity...finally got a chance to get 'er done!

Another finish....grandmothers flower Garden

I took in a quilt for a friend a little over a week ago... She had back surgery in January and I knew I couldn't expect her to try quilting it on her own.. I felt in a bit of a pickle about it because she didn't ask if I would do it... She just announced that she had brought it for me to do at quilting group ....anyway, it was a beautiful quilt she had hand pieced....so I felt a real need to do an especially good job... I loved how it came out...and so did she!

Playing in cement...

We've been working on beginning a restroom that will be added to my sewing studio....First we had to get permits, then we had to do plumbing and get inspections...so finally today was the day to pour cement....did we have a big truck one out? No, not us! This was our setup.

A trailer with sand and gravel mix.... An old cement mixer we bought years ago from my Dad, who bought it even further back from my uncle....and a 55 gallon drum to hold water for mixing! Sounds like work you say? Well, we had minions in the form of 2 grandkids to help... Ben and Cara...

The stories they'll have to tell!

Roll, Roll Cotton Boll

It's finally in the frame! I'm having trouble with the border flaring because of the bias pieced border, and doing total free motion while floating the top was a mistake.... But it's definitely a learning experience!

Another finish....

A friend of mine had a quilt that her husbands grandmother had made that needed some squares replaced so today I finally got to a stopping place on it... Hope she's pleased...

Something over 20 blocks were replaced, 3 were just mended, and several quilting lines were repaired.

Treadle on!

I had a wonderful experience this morning! The treadle machine my old school chum has , had a broken tension spring, so I offered to replace it for her if she'd pay for the spring... It's a 1916 model 127 Singer just like my 1926 model 127... So... Well, this is how it's running now...

http://youtu.be/P96LnK2JhrI

Linda V. Taylor class!

Squealing with joy!!!! I was blessed to get to take a class with Linda V. Taylor at Linda's Electric Quilting in McKinney, Tx. Yesterday! What fun! We worked on learning about building our repertoire of quilting ideas! The book we used was, Quilting With Linda 63 Ideas for, blocks, triangles and techniques for quilting around applique/embroidery... And I got my copy signed by Linda!

Awsome!

We actually got to work hands on with some of the ideas...and I have to admit, I was all thumbs...but I sat down at my machine this morning...setup the way I like it...and... Here, I'll show you the difference!

At the workshop...

Now, this morning!

I don't know about you, but I see a vast improvement! I didn't realize how accustomed to my machine And its height, micro handles, and my stool I was! Sooo glad I took this class!

Ok, A New Record...

The better part of 2 days to make Spider-Man!

Wet and Cold

I hate cold!

Icy again all day...

Sooo tired of this... And another night with possible freezing precipitation in the forecast...

Spent the day out in the sewing room working on strip paper pieced 3.5" squares with Canela and Lil Bit... Sure tired of winter...

Ice again....

And moisture in the forecast for the next few days.... Grr...

Marvin bought me a Fitbit Wednesday when we went to Walmart in Brownwood to get supper and groceries while the weather was fairly good. We went to Golden Chick for supper for Marvin's first time. I had been once with a friend of mine a few months ago. We got the thigh and wing roasted chicken, green beans and a roll. The chicken and beans were good but the roll was fantastic! Next time I want to try their chicken breast and drumstick... Thighs are ok, but...I'd rather have breast meat...just didn't see it on the menu until we'd already ordered....

On another topic, we have a very old clothes washer and one day last week it made a high pitched squealing noise while in agitation cycle... Since then it's been quiet as a mouse...so I suspicion I had overloaded it. I didn't think so at the time, but as I said... It was probably old when we got it... And we've used it quite a bit... So we walked a half block to Higginbothems and bought a new GE ... It was right at closing time so we didn't take it home, then yesterday was not good weather...today is the same, so may not pick it up until tomorrow... In the meantime, the old one isn't making a peep! I'm thinking the thrift store that benefits the humane society might like the donation...who knows how long it will run for someone else!?!

On the subject of quilting, yesterday, I got only part of the Captain America block done, but I did get a water bottle sling completed to take water with me on walks with Little Bit once the weather clears.

This picture shows a Skinny Girl drink bottle instead of water, but you can get the idea.

The strap is WOF so it's long enough to wear cross shoulder...so it won't be too heavy on me to walk with. It should fit most 16 oz. bottles... Now, if warm weather will just come along...

Heat Wave!

30 degrees at lunch... Things are melting a bit even though it's not above freezing yet! We're supposed to have snow again tonight...and moisture chances the rest of the week except for Sunday... Then another hard freeze and snow again! Yuck! 

We didn't have quilting today...lots of ice still about...none of our group needs out in that! So Lil Bit, Canela and I have been working on quiilt blocks for the BOM from Santa Anna... We finished 2 today and ended up with some bonus blocks to boot!

Brrr!

Noon and 25 degrees...icy. Thankfully there's nothing falling now.

So thankful for a warm safe home and sewing room!

Well, now it's 3:00pm, and still 25 degrees... Oh well, Lil Bit, Canela and I have completed one block for the Sew Sweet Simplicity BOM... I chose Jack and the Beanstalk for the center of this one...