I was going to spend the day working on both quilting projects yesterday and make some progress – not!  I did hardly any sewing.  I hadn’t planned on taking down Christmas decorations yesterday but that is what we ended up doing.  We decided to reorganize our tv entertainment center which was made up of an old end table turned sideways and a big ottoman.  We had the tv on the wall and it didn’t swivel.

Off to Wal-Mart we went as we didn’t want anything really expensive – we just needed to organize it better!  We found what we wanted and then back home to put the Christmas things away (Me mainly – Mike carried the packed boxes to the work shop for storage)  so we could get it put together.  I say “WE” – I mean “Mike” put the unit together.   I watched now and then, and finally got a little quilting done while he was working on that.  Never finished yesterday but it will get done today.

So far this is what it looks like.  It is currently sitting almost in the middle of the living room.  All the items with wires still need to be put on the shelves.  And of course the wires need to be done up with some twisty things.   I need vacuum behind this space before we push the unit back up to the wall.  I want to fold some quilts and display them on the big ottoman which will be in the corner of the room and out of the way (we don’t use it).

It looks big in the center of the room, but actually it isn’t – just the photo I guess – it puts the tv up a little higher than we had it – I’m sure once it is moved to the spot it will be we will see that it actually takes up less room.  The old end table will go out to the work shop in storage.  I hope to have this space organized by the end of the day.

But first – I skipped exercising yesterday so I will go exercise this morning and a couple errands to run then back home and get busy.

I asked yesterday when do you take down your holiday decorations:  It sounds like a lot of people take their Christmas decorations down the day after Christmas, another bunch of you New Years Eve or day after New Years and some of you hang on to them for awhile into February!

Two projects going – I am going to try to work on both of them at some point today.  I finished the brown diagonal row last night for Joseph’s Coat.  I really need to press the whole back of the top that I have finished at this point.  It will be harder to do – the larger the top gets and I didn’t press after I attached the last row or two.  The brown row also needs to be pressed.  If I get to it I will start piecing to the body of the quilt.  I will take an updated photo when I get it attached.  Then it is on to the reds.  Head on over to Judy at Patchwork Times and see the other works in progress!

The Signature Quilt will have some stitches done today as well.  I would like to finish up this row of blocks I am working on.  It will be nice to give it one more crank down and work on the final border.  I got a lot done on this one the last two days.  I always get that way the closer I get to the final stitches – of course then I think if I would have just worked more steadily at it I would be done with it and on to another one!

Yesterday morning I was sitting at my computer checking mail and glanced out of the window as I often do only this time I spotted the moon still visible – pretty!  Photo taken through the window so not clear – I was just surprised to see the moon so clear as it was light out – about 7:30 AM I think.

Also noticed a squirrel – so many around here – only this one was climbing up the corner of the house!  Then it turned to look back down at the bird feeder – I really thought for awhile that he was going to take a flying leap and try to land on the feeder – but he turned back around and headed to the roof of the house – didn’t see him come back down – squirrels are all over the place here.  This photo was taken through the same window about an hour or so later in the day, I’m surprised it turned out so clear!

Oh well I am off to the dentist for a check up and cleaning and then to the fitness center for a work out – hope to get busy on the quilts this afternoon – but it might be evening at this rate – I need to start baking cookies as well!

A little more to do in the laundry room and all will be done.  It is amazing how much re-organizing needs to be done sometimes when you get something new.  My re-organizing overflowed into the kitchen as well.  Now I need to still bring some things out to the workshop for storage and then of course remember that the rarely if ever used items are out there for when I do need them!

The washing machine – so many selections – my old one had a little dial and that was about it. Yes it is already in use.  The dryer waiting patiently to be put to work.  This one has a lot of selections on it also compared to the old one.  (the new models are Whirlpool Cabrio) An overall view of this small functional room, the broom and duster need hooks up on the wall to attach them to so they are out of the way a little better.

The other side

This room is a little odd with the rock in the corners – it was at one time a tiny back porch/stoop area that was enclosed in and added to the house for a laundry room – we finished it off somewhat as what was there when we first moved in was really horrible – it looked like an old back stoop, dark outside paneling was on the walls and very poor light – it had a door closing it off to the kitchen, but there was no heat in it so we opened it up and put the wood paneling in there to match the rest of the house – and a better light.

I got more work done on the signature quilt last night and gave it another crank – getting nearer and nearer to finishing it!

All of the Christmas decorations are done!  Only thing left if we want to is to put up outside lights.  We do not do a dramatic display outside, just run lights along the front of the house.  It is a little chilly today though so might wait a day or two until it warms up a little.

The tree  – we got this skinny pre-lite tree last year – it doesn’t take up near the room and it went up pretty darn fast.

A set of religious nesting dolls that were made in Russia

Xmas in the dining area.

On the coffee table

Between the living room and the kitchen

Nativity on the fireplace (will be moved if we need a fire ) Grandpa John Marlow made this nativity stable back in 1953.

I don’t have a lot of anything up any more.  A little here and there.  Now I need to start thinking of Christmas baking.  I don’t do a lot of that any more.  I do have a new cake recipe I want to try that I found on the King Arthur Flour site.  It is called “Grammy A’s Mocha Cake”  – not your grandmothers fruit cake it says – which I hate candied fruit but I like fruit cake with dried fruit & nuts instead and this has a plus of chocolate.  I’ll let you all no what I think of it.

Done with my pumpkins!  Done with my apples – now I can get back to quilting and piecing.  I got 3 more quarts of pumpkin from the second one plus about one more cup that I will use in some pumpkin pancakes or bread this weekend.

Not a bad amount from 2 decorative pumpkins – they did double duty – decorated my porch for awhile and now enjoyed by us in bread, cupcakes, pies, just to name a few of the delicious items I will be baking this winter.  6 quarts in all.  I will be tired of pumpkin by summer!  So glad to be done with fall canning and freezing.  I don’t do this every year – just if I feel like it.

This is the old food mill I use – does anyone have a recommendation for a better one and one that is easier to use – wow did my arm get tired out cranking this one through two large pumpkins.  It is hard to hold it steady over a bowl.   I don’t mind spending a bit for one that will be easier to use than this – I just haven’t really searched for one.

Other than my battle with the pumpkin Mike was having his battle over replacing a ceiling fan in the dining area.  The fan didn’t work well and never circulated air well and then the other day the light quit working as well.  It was time to replace it.

The mess on the floor.

Half way done.

The new fan with 4 lights!  Much better light and I can tell that the fan will give off a lot more air next summer.

This quilt = Joseph’s Coat is just getting too big   I had to extend my design wall so I can lay out pieces for color arrangement.  I guess it is a good thing that we rarely have people over and there are no grandchildren running around the house right now – one bump and my wall and pieces will come tumbling down!

All of the brownish pieces are just sticking up there right now.  A lot of hand piecing to get moving on. The 3 pieces stuck up there to the side have to go to the top – that will be the top corner of the height.  I ran out of room and will have to move a little more to the floor!  I just stuck them up there for now to remind me to lower the whole thing just a little more when I get all those pieces stitched.  This is as long as it gets I do believe.  I will have to lay it out flat when I am done hand piecing all of these pieces and see how long it actually is flat.  I do want it to be a good queen size to fit a fat mattress with a good overhang.  Right now I am measuring about 108 inches.  I always remember that with cotton batting and the shrinkage that I like for the antique look that I am pretty sure it will shrink to about 105 inches at least.  If it is too long it can always be tucked under the pillows on the bed a little bit.  If I move up to a king size bed one day than it will fit on that also.

My big tree in the front yard is certainly going to loose all of its leaves before Thanksgiving – it is turning yellow quickly and tomorrow and Tuesday we are due for some thunderstorms the weather man says and if we get some wind too –  well I do believe in another week to 10 days this tree will be bare!  I have not started to clean up the yard – I wait for it all to be done!  Other than using the leaf blower on the decking and porch that is.

the dogwood leaves are stubbornly staying on the tree – I think they will quickly fall with wind and rain also.

My color scheme for Joseph’s Coat wasn’t quit looking right when I started to press a few pieces this morning for the next batch of melon pieces.  I was going a little bit too much from orangey colors to beiges and brown.  I got out my fabric and started to pull out a few pieces.  I do not have a lot of the darker browns going to red that I hope to use but I will stretch them out some way and make it work.  I will only have a row or two of browns going into the reds – but there you go.  I’m not shopping for more fabric!  I will scrounge around through the fabric and see if I can find anything else that might work.  I am using almost all Hoffman Bali Water Color type of batiks (the link will take you to a place that sells them – it was just a search I did I have not used this shop) with a few other things that look a lot like that type.  Some of these colors don’t quite look as they are through the photo – but the general color type I think is here. That link has a lot of nice batiks though and I will have to book mark it.

The next stack of fabric to be used will be these -  I might need to still do a little rearrangement of color but I think this continues to be close to what I am doing.  It won’t be as good as some of the “professional” quilt designers do with using computer programs and such to design – but maybe one day I will get around to teaching myself how to actually use the quilt design programs – I have EQ7 – I just haven’t done anything with it!

I measured the top the other day to see how much it had grown and have already forgotten! I think it was about 95 inches on the end and the width at the bottom was around 66 or something like that.  I know my design wall is around 72 x 72 so I think my guess is close to what it is.

Do you remember last week that my iron stopped working and I bought a new one?  Well I should have remember that I sometimes put extra items that I am not using for some reason or other out in the workshop on several shelves.  I store extra kitchen items out there that are either duplicates or too big and/or rarely used so they are out of my way – I have a small kitchen and not a lot of extra storage space.

Today I am getting the back of the car loaded with things that I am donating to Good Will.  I got done with the things in the house and thought to go out to the workshop to check and see if there was anything out there that I really and truly no longer needed or wanted.

Look what I found a perfectly good inexpensive iron!  I remember now putting it out there but had totally forgotten about it.  (I remember the big soup pot was out there and the extra laundry basket)

I also found an extra tea kettle:

And an extra coffee pot – a little dirty from being out in the work shop with dust flying and all  but it would clean up just fine if I need it and it still works!

Some of the duplicates are from when we had the big 5th wheel camper – I had bought things to just keep out there – using a smaller camper meant I didn’t have as much storage space so I got smaller items for it. Extras got put in the workshop.  Sometimes I get extras if we see a small appliance that I like better and then the old one gets put away in case we need it.

Do you all do that too – forget to look and see if you stuck something away before buying a new one?

Before I forget on the subject of collecting things to donate for Goodwill — do any of you visit Victoria’s site Bumble Beans ?  Victoria and the group she works with are trying to collect up quilts that they donate to people down on their luck.  They have been homeless for various reasons and are helped to find a home to live in.  When each family moves into their home they are given a quilt – I believe that is the way it works – she explains it all here at this site Bumble Beans Basics.  Quilter Pat Sloan is helping her out with the drive to collect 700 quilts which are going to be given away close to the end of November. If you have an extra quilt that you made and doesn’t have a new home yet you might want to think of sending it her way.  I have two children’s quilts boxed up and ready to send off to her tomorrow.

In between the rain yesterday I got my camera out to take some photos of our fall trees and also my re-arranged pumpkin/flowers.  We had a cold chilly rain all day – made it much more like fall weather I guess.  The leaves fell naturally around my flowers – no work there – until it is time to clean them up that is.

My small dogwood

My big tree in the front yard is starting to turn yellow already in the week since we got home – the one next to it always turns red and is not uncommon for that one to be completely bare by the beginning of November.  The yellow on the other hand at times is still holding onto it’s leaves the first week of December – I don’t know – I think this year it will loose them by Thanksgiving.

Another angle of the dogwood – the orange color tree is a persimmon.

The back of the child’s quilt that I started quilting this week.

And the front of it.  A lot left to work on but a good start.  I will be working more on this one this morning at the quilt group.

Although yesterday was a high of about 64 at midnight by the middle of the day it was staying steady at 48 degrees and a cold rain all day.  We did need it as the summer and early fall has been very dry.  Today though the sun is supposed to be out and nice – I might need to take a walk before I head home from quilt group.

Now that everything is caught up here at the house I spent the morning doing some fun stuff.

I started out by taking a nice walk at the local trails at 8:40 this morning – the fall colors are not at their best right now – give them another week and it might be better.  I will have to check the trails out again later next week and see.  I took the trail that is 2.7 miles long and had a nice almost hour walk.

Then it was off to Lowe’s to find some sunflower seeds for the birds and some fall flowers for the porch.  Off  to Wal-Mart from there to find some reasonable priced pumpkins, some fall flowers for the living room.  With a full car it was back to home to arrange the items bought.

Hmm too much brown on one side of that vase – I need to change that I think – I need to remember to pick up  more of a fall color jug for that table as well – black is … well too black

I thought I had a bag of soil here at home to repot these small mums that got but I don’t.  I also need to go up to the second floor of the workshop and find my small clay pots for them.  I guess I will be running back in town soon to get some soil.  I better also check and see if I have enough pots first or I will be doing too much running!  The display needs a little work – maybe after I repot these plants I can come up with something a little better.

I hope your fall morning is going well wherever you are