One Month Away from Showtime!!

Hello everyone,

It has been crunch time here at the ole homestead!  I've been working each and every day on lamps.  Already did one today, but need to do a little more this evening after dinner.

Since I finished up that afghan last week, I had some yarn left over so I made Macy Kate a little afghan of her own.  She was gracious enough to let me take a photo of her with it on.  He He!!  One thing about Macy is she loves all the creature comforts!  She has more blankies than we do!!

So while I'm watching TV in the evening, and since I still had some leftover yarn, I saw that my friend, Ann, whom I do the craft shows with, had on her blog post yesterday, a crocheted star and she gave the site where she got the instructions.  So, last night I tried to make one.  Not so good, so I ripped it out and tried again today, well.....................  I'm not so sure they look like stars, maybe flowers would be better, but they aren't perfect, so Ann, maybe when we get together next week you can give me a hands on tutorial of yours!!  Paleez.............  So, as to not be defeated at stars, I googled crochet stars and found a pattern that said EASY!  OK, I'm all about that as I'm not a strong crocheter.  Only problem is that the stitches were written for the UK, but luckily I was able to figure out what it meant in USA type stitches.  It's never easy with me, that's for sure.  So, here are a couple pictures of my stars?????

First picture is of the one's using Ann's tutorial.  Pretty sad looking, maybe the top one is good, the little puffy's in the middle ring is what threw me off.

This next pic is of the easy ones I found on the internet.  Still think they look like flowers more than stars.  They had theirs pinned down, so I'm assuming that they starched them at the points.  Maybe I'll try that. They look a little more uniform than the ones above.

Maybe I should find a snowflake crochet pattern, since snowflakes are meant to be imperfect!  I think I'll do that.  Aunt Ann had made me quite a few of the crocheted snowflakes years ago and I still have them.  They are done in thin crochet thread and they are white.  I just laundered them and they need to be starched again and I think they will hang on one of our trees this year.

Bernie brought me home a baker's dozen of corn on the cob from our favorite farmer and I blanched, iced, and froze seven bags yesterday.  We like to have the fresh corn on Thanksgiving!    I was also able to finally make a blackberry cobbler from our blackberries on Tuesday this week.  It was so good warmed up with some vanilla ice cream!!  YUMMY!!!

I quilted yesterday at the center, working on a Christmas Quilt for the Octoberfest show which is the week after next.  Here is a picture of that, also a little panel that was semi-made up that the center had in their stash and all it needed was a binding, so I volunteered to complete that.  It has an apple on the panel and since the center raffles what we call and apple crate, I thought it should go in there and they agreed.  I'm always rooting through things there to she what can be used for this or that!  The quilt center needs a cleaning up for sure.  Drives me insane!!   I brought them home to finish up as the machines at the center need to be serviced.  Spent half my time there trying to get them to stitch correctly.


I just put the red binding on this one.  Someone else had it all together and hand-stitched, very impressive.  We get a lot of things donated to the center by others when their loved ones pass, so I am happy to complete these projects and then the center can sell or use them in some way, that way someone's hard work can be appreciated by someone else and enjoyed!

This quilt centers were done by another gal.  She likes to make the blocks, but doesn't like putting them together apparently.  So I just squared them up, and put the green sashing in and around the edges.  It is ready now for the batting and backing and long-arm quilting that Joannie does so eloquently!  Can't wait to see what she does to this one.  

So that is it for my crafting this week.  I've noticed all week that our leaves are changing.  I'm still hanging on to summer, myself.  My neighbor across the street already has her fall decor out, but I try to wait until the actual first day of fall even though it is my favorite season.  Here are a few pictures I just ran outside and took so you can see the beginning of fall foliage in NW PA!


Our flag and a tree which is always the first to turn across the street.  I'll try to remember to take this exact picture in the weeks to come and this is usually the most beautiful foliage here.

Looking out from our deck behind our home.  Our shed with some fall foliage right behind it.  I can look out our sliding glass doors from the living room and watch this changing a little more each day.

One more looking out the front of the house.

 And last but not least, each day, Bernie and I look to the tree straight ahead, no! not for the little bit of red foliage, but way up top there is a drone hung up there.  Hard to see, but it's there.  It is Bryan's!
He brought it up on Bernie's birthday to play with it, and yep, it flew right into the biggest tree we have and it's near the top.  The wind has blown quite a bit, but it still stays.  One of the little propellers has attached itself to a little branch and it's hanging on for dear life!!  Someday soon it will come down, hopefully, I just hope it's not in the dead of winter with a foot of snow in the ground, although that would make for a cushiony landing!!

Well, that is all for this week and I thought that I had nothing to post about!  Everyone that knows me can attest that I'm never at a loss for words!!!!  So until next week, have a wonderful weekend.  Prayers to everyone!  Also, safe travels to Bryan and Jess as they come home from North Carolina tomorrow.  I'm sure they had a wonderful vacation!  I love NC!!

Hugs,
Debbie