Design Wall Monday

When my world is in chaos and I can do nothing about any of it,

I retreat into myself and seek my quiet.

My quiet is in my sewing room.

It's been a while since I've spent so much time with just me, my machine, 

my thoughts and my prayers.

The borders for Midnight Flight are complete.

Now it's time to lay out the blocks and get them sewn together.

I'll have grandhelpers here today,

maybe it will happen or maybe it won't.

Next up were the exchange blocks for our Christmas Club party.

(It's not really called the Christmas Club, 

but I needed to name it. 😉 )

I can't believe I am this ready so early in the year!

Since I didn't have anything else ready to work on, 

I kitted up several more Oklahoma Backroads blocks.

Free pattern from Quiltville!!

All the piece for a block are pinned together, ready to lay out.

I'm using this quilt for my current leader/ender project.

And since I wasn't finished retreating,

I just sat and sewed several together.

Now I need to kit some more.

Several more blocks were added to the stack.

And of course some had to be layed out just to see. 😍

I can't believe I haven't done a DWM in over a month!

I'm linking to Small Quilts and Doll Quilts Design Wall Monday.

OMGosh, the things that are posted over there,

I can't wait to go visiting!!!

I truly love Monday in Blogland.

Quilting? What Quilting?

We had a fun time at the beach this past week.

It was only the 2 of us.

We had our own little Eclipse Party.

Ernie is not one to sit around and crochet or knit or sew like I am. 😏

He does take some time off once in a while to just read.

He loves his westerns and when he gets in to one, he's all in.

Lots more weedeating, chainsawing and chipping took place on the new lot.

Isn't it amazing!

There is still so much more to do.

It's a jungle!!!

He got a pretty good path made for the fence line.

You know what they say about fences making good neighbors.

Mostly it's to keep our dogs in.

I was determined to finish my Virus Shawl.

I started this in December 2016 after seeing a picture on Facebook.

You know what that's like...ooohhh, I must have one of those!

I can't believe I didn't blog about it.

I finished it!  It's so cozy.

I've used it several times already.

I used Red Heart Unforgettable yarn. 

The color is Tidal.

I love the feel of this yarn but it is not one I will use again.

I like a smooth yarn, not one with thick and super thin spots.

I brought 3 pair of my knitted socks that needed a little mending.

I am not a great darner but I got the job done.

No one ever gets that close to my feet to notice where these were fixed. 

Once these was finished, I got busy on my Meandering Vine socks. 

These were last shown here in July.

I was about halfway into the heel flap when I put them away.

I got them out one morning when I couldn't go back to sleep and

finished the flap and the heel turn.

I picked up the gusset stitches later in the day 

and on the way home just put my head down and got through the decreases.

Now it's mindless knitting in the truck for the next trip to the beach.

One day I sewed on my Wild & Goosey blocks.

I now have a total of 25 full blocks.

Each full block uses 4 3" blocks.

It's probably time to figure out how big I'm going to make this one.

It's fun just using what scraps I have with me.

There is not going to get more out of the bin.

Once the bag gets down low, I'll bring more.

But until then, it's the use 'em up game!

So that's most of the news from the last week.

Until next time...

We Thought It Was Going To Be Fun

Buy a lot at the beach lot they said, it will be fun! 

While it has been fun, it has also been a whole lot of hard work!

Our campers arrived Sunday.

Lots of fun chatter, tent set up and then an evening out to dinner.

Monday they started tearing the newly rebuilt deck apart.

This was my plan all along.

I hated that big deck sitting right in the middle of everything.

I did understand it's purpose but it didn't need to be so big.

Now it's a smaller deck right off the bus.

It's perfect!

And the perfect project for the kiddos to help with. 

Miss Clella Mae is a beast with the power screwdriver!

When we bought this lot, the owners had left behind a dog kennel and 2 dog igloos.

What a great playground for the kiddos.

One of these days, that will also be removed.

The previous owners did some strange stuff here.

After a hard day,

Relaxing is easy.

The hammock is a new addition and was lots and lots of fun!

Cards and fun!

Look at granddog Sadie in the blue chair.

She knows how to relax!!

See the red woodchipper, 

talk about a beast!

Took care of the pile of bamboo like in record time.

We bought the lot next door.

It's a jungle.

Somewhere under that mess is a septic system that needs to be found.

Ernie did lots of weed whacking and chain sawing!

They should be able to locate it now.

 Next up is more clearing and more fencing.

And more playing!!

Want to come camp with us???

Thanks for a great family week at the beach.

Huge thanks for your hours and hours of hard work! 

All Work and No Play

We found out it costs a lot to have a chain link fence installed.

We are do it yourselfers so we got busy.

After plans were drawn up, submitted and approved for a fence around out beach lot,

we picked up the parts and pieces (most of them 😉) we needed and 

headed to the beach for a few days of hard work.

Our friend Bill showed up and helped so much.

I didn't have to do much.

Ernie and Bill worked their hinnies off on Phase 1 (100 feet between the neighbors and us)

and got it completed in a few hours.

Day 2, Phase 2, Part 1 was the front of the lot.

It went along without many hiccups,

we ran out of concrete!!!

There had to be a Home Depot run.

We decided to go ahead and put up one of the gates now.

So we needed to get the gate.

Day 3, Phase 2, Part 2

We started out by putting up the wire for Part 1,

then turned the corner and darn! we are short on wire.

Another trip to HD.

While he was gone,

I hatched a plan...

Could we move those clumps of Pampas Grass???

Why yes we can.

But first the old fence had to come down.

. 

2 plants went into the corner.

It's amazing how just a bit of something gives you a nice bit of privacy.

And the usable space with that fence out of there is amazing!

Then Ernie suggested we put the big clump in front of the window of the neighboring trailer.

Oh, that's a great idea!!!

Sure it is until you have to excavate out bamboo roots!

That stuff is so invasive and so nasty!

Lots of sweating and swearing and just plain hard work!

After all of that work,

The big clump is planted and it looks great.

Or it will, as soon as we get that dried bamboo has gone through the chipper.

Oh yeah, that deck he just rebuilt,

That goes too.

There is a new plan for that thing!

Thanks Pam and Bill for that suggestion!

Now our kiddos and dogs are more secure

and we are very happy with our open space.

This is how we spent our evening,

feet up, easy dinner of cold beverages, roasted hotdogs and smores at the firepit.

Phase 2, Part 3-The Deck-will happen next week.

Fence Phases 3, 4 and 5 will wait.

There is some brush clearing that has to happen first.

Bring your gloves kids, 

Gramma has a little project.

It may or may not involve building a fort. 😉😉😉