Tuesday, May 31, 2016

lost rabbit on the Feast of Corpus Christi and Happy Memorial Day

   Sunday we ended up at Mass twice. Yea, I was really surprised too, as you know my husband isn't Catholic. And since it was the feast of Corpus Christi there was this special mass being offered in our Latin community which normally is at our parish at 1pm. But was up the road at Blessed Sacrament Parish since Corpus Christi is their parish's feast day. The kids initiated the request to go to mass again and cleared it with me on the way home from our 9:30 mass.  I know daddy had worked over night and might just be getting up when we came home and I said you can ask him since we haven't seen him since yesterday but don't expect him to want to since 1) it's in Latin and 2) he is going to have to go back to work in a few hours and 3) he's very tired. They sort of whined about it since I didn't say yes. 
I said, "If it's God's will than daddy will say yes, pray and then ask if you want to go that bad." So they did. When we pulled up in the driveway, Knox hopped out and ran and asked daddy and without hesitation Brad said, "Yes we can go, what is Corpus Christi and when is it?" I then explained that it meant, and it was an Extraordinary Form and a procession and he said no problem as long as I get to work on time.


  While we waited to leave again, Knox got one of our bunnies out, "Smokey Coal" (he's jet black) and he forgot about him as he went to play with Genna. A thunderstorm was rolling in and it started to sprinkle, I called the kids in to get back into their church clothes and leave. I told Knox to close up the rabbit hutch and asked what he was doing. He was running everywhere looking scared. He realized the rabbit ran off out of this makeshift pen. We quickly searched and I sent the kids inside to tell their dad and to go change clothes again. Our yards here are covered with bushes and trees and thick growth everywhere. Also the highway is next to us, and the grass there is over 2 feet tall. I knew that black rabbit would be impossible to locate.

  Knox ran out again and yelled "pray to St. Anthony and Pray to St. Francis." I did and then Brad came out, and said for us to go on to Mass without him and he would continue searching. I knew that would happen...I just knew something would bomb family mass plans- trying to get a non Catholic to mass is hard. I said no I am going to keep looking, I headed south and west to the neighbors house and just as I was about around into their front yard was our "Smokey Coal" I yelled for Brad and Brenden, and tried not to startle the bunny more. I caught him as he ran into their bushes against the brick on the side of their house. We still left on time and the rain stopped. WHEW!  And we made it through the Extraordinary Mass and participated in the outdoor Eucharistic procession without rain and the severe storm (with a a thunderstorm warning) apparently dumped on our house but not on the part of town we were at Mass in- it missed it completely.




We get the old altar flowers from our parish when their being thrown away and when the flowers wilted we put the petals around our statues.






God is good! Somehow I still did laundry and helped Grandpa rid his garage of a skunk smell (the dog and skunk had another disturbance).

Moving on, here's a quilt update (it's sewn now, I just need to do the stitch in the ditch squares)..it's also Brenden's birthday today. We went to the zoo. We have a world class elephant exhibit that just opened, it was awesome.





And this photo of my brother today was just to EPIC not to share, as my cousin Christ Fisher says. I got to talk to him tonight, he hiked Mt. Huron alone today, and had the summit to himself for one hour. 40 MPH wind and managed to get his flag to fly straight enough and his tripod didn't fall over for this great shot at 14,000 feet!



Love you little bro! God Bless America and all those who defend us!


Wednesday, May 25, 2016

May crowning tutorial revisited, Papal garden flag, and John Deere quilt

Our Mary garden is growing lilies, we can't wait for them to bloom. I need to fill in the bottom of the garden with something that likes shade, we just didn't want to dig up the lilies accidentally- now they are all up finally- there were some in the back that really took their time.
 We got this cool Vatican City outdoor garden flag on Amazon. It came from China- it really is cool looking- upon close examination you can tell maybe the screen print may not be completely perfect- maybe it's not legal, sort of like those fake Pradas and L.V.'s in china town in NYC? lol (They seemed to have screen printed 3 pieces separately. Like the yellow went on, then they misaligned the off white under the papal keys, then they put on the papal keys. It does look nice anyway.) 

We have a crown for her, but we have had rain non stop I just can't leave it out there- it won't survive. If you want to see the crown tutorial here it is.  I have another tutorial coming  up before to long, something else for your statue of Mary this month.


Okay next up, the John Deere quilt for Brenden. Finally I got a huge stack of squares cut out- I only dinked skin our of my fingers 3x with my new rotary cutter,  it hurts when I wash my hands. That cutting mat and ruler is so darn cool!


Huge pile, but I can knock it out tomorrow night easily, the squares are 6"x6" for an 8x12 square quilt. The fabric came from Hancocks (again they are going out of business).




I will put green minky on the back for him. His favorite color is blue and I have some blue but I think it's too "pretty". But he may decide he needs that blue, so we will see.

Monday, May 23, 2016

sorry making adjustments

Follow my blog with Bloglovin Sorry everyone, bear with me. I have not a clue how to adjust my blog width so it just fits your screen without scrolling. Yes it drives me crazy, I am trying to find the setting. In the end, I hope I get all the widgets and menus on the right, the blog towards the left of your screen. and the screen width adjusted to fit perfect each time without scrolling left or right.


I think it's fixed.

Wednesday, May 18, 2016

Star Wars quilt...done. Next John Deere

I think my sewing machine will definitely be needing a tune up after all this. My kids think Star Wars is a lego theme. They know there are movies, but we haven't let them see them. It's funny, they know quite a bit about it all, definitely more than I can remember just from playing with Legos.


This is 2 yards of flannel fabric I purchased at Hancocks- they are going out of business.


Another 2 yards of flannel. I have left overs, but not much.

To go on black minky.



Always prewash!  It shrunk a lot!


Black minky upside down. This was two yards as well I think, maybe slightly more. I have a little left over for a much smaller project.


This part was fun with my new rotary cutter.


I sewed rows together this time.






Squares are done.


Getting ready to spray the basting spray.


I used cheap white fleece from Walmart to add weight and give the flannel a backing- it will be a warm warm blankie, it's definitely heavy!  I cut the minky slightly larger than the patches and made it self binding. You do this by folding the edges of the minky over on it's self and the flannel/fleece and top stitching all the way around. I might find something lighter for Brenden's blankie instead of fleece.


Stitch in the ditch and your done! I backstitch everything I sew, I don't like repairs later on.

Knox's birthday is in a few days, this is his birthday present. Brenden birthday is in about a week, and he has a John Deere quilt coming up. Then I am done for awhile, and I will start Genna's later- my machine needs a break.

Sunday, May 15, 2016

My first quilt is done, next Star Wars

I made Zoe two little blankies last week. For the quilt I had the squares all sewn together just sitting around a for all last weekend- we were a little busy as you could see from my Mother's Day photos. I sat down and finished the back of the quilt on Wednesday night and then made her soft blankie Thursday morning that had just minky and felt (no squares or batting).

My cutting mat and rotary cutter came two Saturdays ago (a week ago) but I had already hand cut out my squares and sewed them all together. It's a nice big mat as you can see below.
 


I used this Quilt Basting Spray- Hobby Lobby with coupon was around $9. It worked awesome and held the fabric in place with no pins.




I put a very thing layer of batting in the middle of it. Like a sandwich.


Spray one end and put the pieces together and then move half your material and do the other end.





I left a little edge around the whole thing- so the piece of minky was bigger than the square patches. It made it self binding when I sewed it up.


Zoe got to roll around on it for the rest of that day. That night I went and sewed up the squares by stitching in the ditch of the squares.


Stitch in all the ditches.

  

That will sew nice squares into the minky on the other side. 


This really is decorative and holds your fabric in place permanently


Onto my next quilt- Knox's will be a minky backed Star Wars quilt.





Happy Feast of Pentecost by the way!

Sunday, May 8, 2016

2016 Mother's Day, somewhere halfway to the middle of nowhere

We had severe weather forecasted today, but ended up with gentle gentle quick showers. Eastern Kansas is beautiful in the Flint Hills area. There are some places that remind me of Ozarks in, Arkansas, because of the heavy tree coverage. I was so blessed to have my parents helping me out.  This was somewhere between Moline, Dexter, and Howard, KS.






 Looking straight out from my "bathroom"




The northern view from my sliding door bathroom.


Hillary's got my back!












This van is getting dirty!












Those are huge!


green apple army men



he shared with me


if you don't have a dusty rear end you weren't working hard enough!

We all found a trilobite I think, except Grandpa and Brenden. (Mom's is that big pretty one)

some of the trilobites we found today- WHY WE GO! Fossils are like a gold dig!  I definitely got the best of the best for help today from my parents. I love them so much. Thank you!