It's Almost Christmas!

It's only 10 days until Christmas! The tree is partially decorated, the cards partially written, most gifts are ready, no gifts are wrapped, no gifts mailed. Oh, well, it'll all come together soon enough. I still remember a pastor we had in the 1980s that reminded us that Advent was a time of preparation and that the days after Christmas were the time for celebration. It'll all get done sooner or later! Thanks Pastor Time for those thoughts. At least I remember one thing you said!

Quilty Day

I just spent a great couple of hours with my friend, Rhonda, at the Windmill Quilters Quilt Show. We looked at every quilt and shopped the three vendors. Found a great fabric with dogs laying on quilts to use for our dog's quilt/rug for the living room. Also found a new pattern for a tablerunner using charm squares. Looking forward to a Monday road trip to a couple of quilt shops and lunch.

2 for Quilts of Valor

These two will be heading to Alycia who's collecting many Quilts of Valor for distribution next spring. The HeartStrings one is from our summer gathering. The other is from a pattern I found in a magazine. Love how quickly that one goes together too. The fabrics in the red/white/blue one are from those three of use shared at the WI/MN sew-in. They were up for grabs and 3 of us just kept sorting through them and each taking a small amount of each fabric. I still have more to start another red/white/blue quilt and I intend to use this pattern again.

Donation for Paul's Benefit

A good friend of our's has needed to sell his business and move across the country to receive medical attention for a failed kidney. A couple of area fire and rescue departments held a benefit a few weeks ago to raise funds to help Paul. We donated this quilt to the event. Best wishes, Paul. We hope to see you this winter in better health. This is another of the quilts from the summer HeartStrings WI/MN Sew-In. Thanks to Carol for quilting it as she does so many of the charity quilts I complete!

Going to Grace Place

This is another HeartStrings quilt from this summer's sew-in. It will be going to Grace Place in Somerset, WI at Christmas time through a donation by Hudson Heritage Quilters. Grace Place helps families in transition with housing as they move on with their lives. They have used up their money for this year and helped lots more people than they did in 2007.

Granddaughter's 10th Birthday

Here's our Granddaughter with her cousin and her two brothers (our grandsons) along with her birthday cupcakes. Where in the world did the last 10 years go? If she's 10, I must be.....oh, forget that stuff!

One Last Tree

This is the last of my October 2008 fall tree pictures. The tree doesn't show it's colors so well in this photo, but I like the farm buildings in the background.

Another Pretty Tree

Love those reds and golds of autumn in Wisconsin!!

Autumn in Wisconsin

We had some really pretty trees this fall and I just had to take some pictures. As you can see, one shows part of the farm in the background....an additional element I didn't notice as I was looking at the tree.

This quilt top is from HeartStrings and was started this past summer at a WI/MN sew-in at Warren Town Hall. Everyone liked how it turned out using HeartString blocks and a cheater cloth panel.

Quilt of Valor

On November 4, General Election Day, the library was honored to have Cross Lutheran Church hold a Chili Feed with Pie and Ice Cream, craft and bake sale, used book sale and a booth set-up by the local Tastefully Simple customer representative. With all the events and matching funds from Pierce-St. Croix Thrivent Financial over $3500.00 was raised for our new building. It was a wonderful evening for visiting with friends and neighbors while supporting the building we hope will become reality in the next year or so. At this event I presented Kim Gunderson, Tastefully Simple representative, with a Quilt of Valor for her husband who has recently returned from service with the National Guard. He's been on a couple of deployments and has served his country well. Above is the quilt I presented them with because I felt the heart and home theme was suitable for a family happy to have Dad/Husband home again.

Wayne's Foot is Healed

On October 8 Wayne was released from his orthopedic surgeon with a well healed foot. He still has the plate and screws in the foot. They will remain there unless they cause him discomfort in the future. He talked to his boss at work the week before and asked when he should plan to return to work. With the economy the way it is, the boss said "Prepare for lay-off instead of returning to work." So October 9 was Wayne's first day of lay-off for the 2008-2009 winter season. He's been continually busy since then with fall harvest and preparing the farm for winter. He's loving the situation and not complaining at all. This pre-retirement stuff is very good.

Quilting Granddaughter

Bri saw this pattern a couple of months ago when she was visiting us but the summer got so busy we didn't get to make it until last week. She selected the fabrics from my stash, arranged their use and placement and operated the foot feed as we made the bag. She was thrilled with it, but what girlie girl wouldn't be thrilled with pink?

Grandchildren Quilting

Here's Brandon with the front side of the quilt we made this spring and summer for his dog. Brandon selected the fabrics, decided on the layout and operated the foot feed as we assembled the quilt top and quilted the quilt. Brandon is a very generous young man. The first quilt he made when he was 4 years old was a Christmas Turning Twenty for his 2 year old brother. Then he made one for himself right after that. The back of the quilt is a cat print that Brandon thought was a cool idea for a dog's quilt. The label is one that we designed on the computer and traced onto fabric and colored using Pigma pens.

Hazel Mackin Community Library Charity Golf Tournament

My friend, Cecily Perry of Kansas, sent me the center of this quilt partially done after she decided it got too big to complete as a wallhanging for her daughter-in-law. Knowing my love of batiks she thought I would find a place for the started quilt top. I added more squares to the top and added the borders. Kathy Kaun machine quilted it and it will be donated to the Hazel Mackin Community Library Charity Golf Tournament on September 13 for their silent auction. All proceeds from the golf tournament go towards the new library building fund. I do hope this brings a nice donation.

4 Quilts Given to Grace Place, Somerset, Wisconsin

A HeartStrings quilt top, about twin sized, that I set the blocks together after receiving them from HeartStrings Block Manager Sue Frank. This too will be donated to Grace Place. Wayne really likes this one and thought it would be a good one for a raffle, but I had already committed it to Grace Place.

A batik quilt about 50" x 50" also out of donated fabrics and machine quilted by Carol S. who longarmed all 4 quilts I'm posting this evening. Wonderful job, Carol!

Another cute quilt for a small child at Grace Place. These quilts are all from our First Monday Sewing Group. We're getting lots of quilts made out of donated fabrics someone wasn't going to use anymore.

A simple strip quilt that will keep some small child warm and cozy at Grace Place.

Wayne's foot

This is Wayne's right foot on July 13, 2008. On Saturday, July 12, 2008 he was at a friend's farm with our two grandsons and the men decided to weigh some steers they didn't think were heavy enough to go to the county fair the next week. The first few steers walked across the scale nicely. Then one hesitated and got a swat on the butt from Wayne and our friend's wife. The steer slipped or kicked or something that was so fast no one remembers exactly what happened. Any way it hit the livestock gate that Wayne was holding and the gate fell onto Wayne's foot braking the first metetarsol. There was immediate great pain, but Wayne and Mark were on their way to pick up a load of hay, so on they went. By the time Wayne got home the foot was very swollen and the fracture blisters had developed. Being a Saturday my dear husband did not want to waste the day at the emergency room, so he waited until Monday, July 14 to go to the orthopedic surgeon. They put him in a soft splint and scheduled surgery for Monday, July 21 in hopes that the swelling would go down and the fracture blisters would heal. Surgery was performed on Monday, the 21st to put in a plate and 5 screws. Wayne then had another soft splint and was told no weight bearing for a week. This slowed him down quite a bit. On Monday, July 28 we returned to the surgeon who said no weight bearing meant no using the 4 wheeler instead of walking, no driving the truck, no steps, etc. The foot was so badly injured that not complying with the doctor's orders could cause him to lose his foot. Those words and some from his loving wife caused him to slow down more. Since then he has read many books, watched more ESPN, RFD, Biography, and garbage daytime TV than anyone really wants too. But he has been keeping the foot elevated and the swelling has gone down and the blisters are almost totally healed. It's now 4 weeks since the injury and he has 3 more weeks with no weight-bearing. He got a hard cast on Wednesday, August 6. We also are now renting a little cart called a Roll-a-Bout. It's like a walker but just half the width with an area where he can kneel to keep the lower leg from supporting weight. It really rolls right along and he can move quite quickly with it.

Originally we were told Wayne would be off from work until September 8, but we're thinking this may go on for a few more weeks. The bottom of the foot was damaged more than the original x-ray showed. The surgeon said it collapsed. Also there were more small splinters of bone in the foot when the surgery was performed than what was expected. Thus the surgery took longer and the larger plate and more screws than expected.

I do enjoy having him around more, but he's not too fond of feeling like the dog. I say, "Have a good day" and go to work with the good-bye greeting of "See you tonight." The other day I told him not to chew on the furniture while I was at work. A friend suggested I tell him not to water the furniture while I'm gone, but I didn't think I'd try that greeting as I leave. This injury has been harder for him than the broken leg in March 2004 or the knee revision Christmas of 2006 because of the time of year. It's very hard for someone used to being outside as much as possible during the summer to stay in the house and quiet. Just a good think for Dish Network and cell phones.

More from Aug. 2, 2008

This is a second quilt top we created on Aug. 2, 2008. We made most of the string blocks that day and used a cheater cloth panel for the printed squares. This really turned out nice and we were all very happy with it. (If you noticed that the lower right two printed squares are upside down and not keeping with the pattern from the other 3 corners, you are very correct. Since the picture was taken they have been fixed. This top is now being quilted and will return to me for binding.

HeartStrings Quilting August 2, 2008

On Saturday, August 2, 2008, a group of ladies from Eastern Minnesota and West Central Wisconsin gathered to quilt for charity. This is a quilt we created that day. It was inspired from a quilt block called Michigan from the Quilters Cache website. We altered the size of the black triangles to use the smaller triangle trimmed off of the larger square to make the smaller triangle on some of the blocks. The result is a look of a thread spool at the intersection of the black triangles. We now call this design the WI/MN block.

All of our quilts are donated to charity. Some went to the storm victims in Missouri in 2006, some to victims of Hurricane Katrina during their recovery when a group from our church traveled there in 2007, area OB/GYN units, Twin Cities (St. Paul/Minneapolis) Childrens Hospitals, transitional housing for victims of abuse, homes for people in transition, fund raisers for schools, churches and libraries and many other worthwhile causes.