Halloween

Halloween is quiet in this neighborhood.  I stopped at the bank today to use the coin sorting machine.  That's the only kind of slot machine I really ❤️ to play! 

I had a cool whip bowl of change & walked away with $70.

The tellers were Repunzel, Elsa, Snow White & Cinderella. I bet they will be very glad to get those costumes off at the end of today. 

Then I did my good deed for the month. ❤️ There is a Facebook group called "Barron county neighbors helping neighbors".   

I have given away a few items, people post that they're needing for something.   There are some folks who really need some assistance, who put their critical needs out for everyone to see and hopefully someone can help them. 

One person, who I've seen offer assistance more than once, is the manager at the local Dollar General store. 

On several occasions, she has offered to buy desperately needed items for people, if they just will come to the store and ask for her. 

 I went from the bank over to the Dollar General store and asked for The Manager. I told her I wanted to help her continue to help folks who need it in our community and I gave her $40 towards that effort. 

I walked away feeling like a million bucks.

💰💰

 It reminded me of the comment that my Aunt AneMarie wrote in Dad's graduation card. back in 1942. She said "help others along the way and you will help yourself".  

Isn't it the truth. 

❤️

In the mail today,  I got an invite to a baby shower for Emily and baby girl. The shower is November 17th, now I must get sewing. 

It's crazy mild and still no hard frost at my house.  I noticed that the Verbena are hanging on. If I had watered them, they would be doing better I suppose.

And the Rosemary looks about the best it has looked all year! 

I'm such a fantastic gardener...I leave plants for dead,  and they defy all odds and thrive. 

Happy 🎃 Halloween! 

Port Wing Trip

 I took a drive to Port Wing on Saturday to drop off a quilt top at Up North Quilts to have it sandwiched with batting and long arm quilted.  Tammy is a very friendly business owner, in a very small town on the shores of Lake Superior.

There is a gas station / store next door.  The only bathroom in the area and also they sell Yogi Tea, which I love.  They always decorate for Halloween, although it was pretty calmed down this year.  They did have fresh fish that day, or feet, hands, eyeballs, your choice.

Jackson was playing in a playoff football game in Columbus, WI.

I was able to get it on my phone but only intermittently as cell service Up North is sketchy, as best.

It was a better game than what the score suggests in this screenshot.

I visted Wisconsin Point and sat on the breakwater steps and watched the game on my phone.

Nice view.

Never fun to have a really great season end in one game, but such is the fate of teams that make the tournaments.

Final score, screenshot

Great Nephew Jack and Gage were headed to Madison so they planned and were able to attend Jackson's game.

2nd cousins, Jack, Jackson, Gage, photo from Glenn

Glenn and Kathy traveled for the game and were delighted to sit with Jack and Gage to watch the game.

Photo from Glenn

Glenn, Jack, Gage, Kathy

Jackson's Mom sent me this photo. 

This is why I like basketball. 

I had a great road trip.  The last few miles were the hardest, but I made it home safely.

We are having unusually lovely fall weather, I hope it lasts well into November.

Quilt Camp, Fall 2022

The last time I was at Quilt Camp, was Fall of 2019.  By the time our Spring camp dates rolled around, Covid 19 was in the process of shutting down the world.

Some of the quilters had attended in Spring 2022, but I was not ready. 

Now, it felt great, normal and really nice to be back sewing for a few days in a beautiful location with friends.

There were only 11 quilters this time, less than half of the normal, but for those of us who were there, it was grand.  We had plenty of space, never had to wait on an iron and were able to really chat with all of the other attendees.  

I loved it.  

Our 4-some of Mary, Sharon, Sandy & I had a prime location with big design boards & close to the bathroom.  

Sandy & I arrived on Sunday afternoon, and were sewing by about 4pm.  After our dinner, I sewed until about 10:30pm.  My new friend Carol was willing to go longer, but I found a stopping point just as I ran out of steam.  Sandy headed home for the night not long after dinner.

Bright and early Monday morning, I headed down to sew and I was the only one there for a couple of hours.  Peaceful, and productive.

Job 1 on my list of projects were 2 sets of cloth napkins intended to be wedding gifts.  It had been a long time since I had sewn and even longer since I sewed napkins.  I made some silly errors, but all turned out fine and useable, although if you take a measuring tape to the finished product, you will wonder what I was doing.

Napkins & holder

The easy way to miter a corner.  Sandy had a copy of the instructions for me.
Even then, I did some silly stuff.

I always love how the fancy top stitching finishes off this project.

Next on my list was a tee shirt quilt for Great Nephew Jude.

I had collected some of the tee shirts that Kyle & Heather had made for Rare Disease Day, February 28.

I think they printed tee shirts for 3, or maybe even 4 years.

Mary and I had deconstructed the tee shirts when she was here about a week ago.  The squares were all different sizes.   After applying the fabric stabilizer, I was ready to make squares.

I had a really nice white fabric with embossed little hearts that I used for borders.  It had a really nice finish on the fabric.  A nice contrast to the soft tee-shirt material.

So, this is where I started.

Trying to decide on layout.

Mary and Sharon arrived mid day on Monday.  It was nice sewing with them again.  Mary is such a big help on any project as she has so much experience and has taught so many classes on techniques.  Mary was working on mittens, repurposed from old wool sweaters and she donates them to the Humane Society in Ashland for sale.  I think she made 15 sets of mittens over the weekend.  AND she helped a new sewer with her machine and an elderly sewer with some placemats that required a fancy binding.  Not to mention she helped me several times as well.

When it got to be almost 4pm, it was Happy Hour.

I moved right along with the quilt.  

Not my most precise work but in the end, I think it will come together fine.  

I found some fabric on an internet store that I used to fill in between the tee shirt panels.

It was not very nice fabric, VERY ravel-y, but kind of cool.

I needed an outside border to square everything up and increase the length over the width.
The Little Gift Shop & Quilt Shop in Solon Springs had just what I needed.

Next stop is the long arm quilter.
I had purchased some yardage for the backing, but once I saw how the front looked, I wanted something different.

This backing fabric that I found at The Little Gift Shop is so fun and cheerful and the colors tie in to the quilt front.  And we get 20% off our purchases during quilt camp, and extra bonus.

I'm planning on taking the quilt top to the Senior Center on Thursday.  After bridge, I'll use the big tables to lay it out, measure and then cut my backing fabric so that I can seam it before Saturday.

Saturday I plan to make a trip to Port Wing to drop the quilt off at the long arm quilter in Port Wing, WI.  It is about 100 miles one way, but I get to see Lake Superior as bonus.

Once the quilt was done, I was into little projects.

I had this little 'Fall Leaves' runner kit.  It went together fast.  It still needs a border & binding.

I had 2 of these little holiday runner kits that I had bought at JoAnn's.  Very easy and turned out really cute.  The Backing is black & white buffalo check.  I wish I had more of these little kits.  The quality was very good, I was surprised.

Wednesday we had brunch and then started getting ready to go home.  

I think I loaded up my car at about 1pm.  

I was really tired coming home and didn't bother to bring in my sewing gear until TODAY, 

7 days later.

I knew I wanted to do some purging and organizing in the sewing room before setting up my machine again.  It got that done today and now I have an operational sewing room again.  I'm excited to finish up the fall runner and to start something new.

 

Ta-Da.

We are registered for Spring 2024 & Fall 2024 Quilt Camps.  

The management of the camp is changing hands, but the Little Gift Shop will do a great job, even though we will miss our friend Kristi.

I can't wait.

Barley has her own Prime Account

 This catnip toy arrived from Amazon today.  I guess Barley must have her own Prime Account now. 

She played hard with it for a bit and then had enough.  I put it back in the zip lock bag so it stays fresh.  She's rolling around in her catbed now so I think a little goes a long way with this pumpkin of drugs. 

I'm sure she owes a thankyou note to someone. 

🐈‍⬛🐈‍⬛🐈‍⬛

I had my annual eye exam today.  No changes,  healthy eyes,  I am pleased. 

Volleyball season comes to a close

Tonight was the Regional Championship game, Division 3, Sectional 1.  

Spring Valley traveled to Westby Wisconsin.  

Westby was seeded #1, Spring Valley was seeded #5.  

The scores were 25-19, 22-25, 25-17, 25-23.

Spring Valley played some of their best volleyball in recent weeks, and the team showed incredible determination and came back from deficits in 3 of 4 games.  Although Westby won the match, the Spring Valley Cardinals were in each and every game.  This was no beat down by any stretch.  I'm sorry to see the season end. But I'm very proud of great niece Charli and the team.  The results this year are dramatically improved from last year. 

Charli at a previous, happier, game

****

I've watched A LOT of livestream broadcasts of school sports but tonight, in a Regional Championship volleyball game, was the absolute worst of any that I have seen.  The play by play was fine, very biased, but so it goes. The video was just terrible. We rarely got to see any plays on the Spring Valley side of the court. For the first game, we never saw anything beyond the net for our team.  The camera was zoomed in and then not moved to follow the action. Often the camera was pointing at the service line while play continued at the net.  The camera was aimed high enough to see the ceiling, which meant that the half of the court closest to us was out of the frame. Very disappointing, to say the least.

I could go on and on with this rant.  

Westby dropped the ball tonight.  

They get my 💩 award for worst of any livestreams that I have ever seen, in any sport, over the past 3 to 4 years. 

End rant.

Charlotte and her volleyball team, The Cardinals

 Great niece Charli is a Junior and an accomplished athlete.  On Thursday, I headed to Spring Valley to watch her play volleyball.  This game was the last of the regular season and both teams were sitting at the top of the conference, so winner takes the conference.  

The gym was full and loud and it was exciting.  E/PC won the first 2 games, Spring Valley rallied to win the 3rd in a really tense, nailbiter.  But the heart breaker 4th was won by Elmwood/Plum City.

Here are a few photos of Charli, #11, on the court.  It was Parent's night too, so much going on.  I'm really glad I was there to capture some of the action.

Charli's little brother Cordell is on the far right.

Boyfriend in the crowd, wearing a Charlotte jersey.

Going for the kill

No Joy

After the game, Charli came up in the bleachers to thank us all for coming, but first had a moment in a big hug with her Mom.  I was crying, she was crying, good grief.  It is hard to see these kids take it so hard. 

I'm off to Quilt Camp tomorrow, I'll have to try to watch a bit of her tournament game on my phone.

Go Cardinals!

It was a sweet gesture to see boyfriend with that Charlotte shirt on though.
High School romance is very cute.

Is it a scam

  For several years now I have been receiving routine updates from Comfort Inn of Norway. These updates have been reminding me of my of my frequent flyer points and the deadlines for expiration. The emails were always in Norwegian and I had to use Google lens to translate.

 I marked these emails Spam a few times and eventually they quit coming.

Today, I received a reservation confirmation in email, again from Comfort Inn of Norway.

The conversion to USD makes this about $190 reservation.  I hope it's someplace nice. 

I always think everything is a scam,  but I did send an email to the address in the lower right hand corner of the letter,  asking to have my email removed from their records. 

I wonder is there is a Norwegian WJ living her best life somewhere without benefit of all these emails.