Fall is Offically Here.......

...and we are having a lovely rainy day. Not just showers, but pretty much a slow steady rain all day with a bit heavier at times. I don't mind at all since I had no plans for doing anything outside.

Today is Chicken Canning Day so I'm glad it's cool and with the breeze blowing in the windows it's stayed comfortable in the house. I really thought with all the chicken I cooked that my three dozen 1/2 pt. jars would all get filled with some extra for a couple of pints. Not so. Only filled two dozen with just a little left over...so one canner-full.  Guess I will have to do some more another day. There is some nice broth though so I think I'll can it once the canner cools & the jars come out.

I've been slowly working on one of my long-term quilting projects whenever I get the urge to sew....little spool blocks. Four of these will make one 6 in. block. It's Bonnie Hunter's Spoolin' Around pattern. I have no idea how many little blocks I've made or exactly how many I need. I just know all the ones I cut & kitted up back at the end of Feb. are sewed up and I need to start cutting up more scraps.

Until I get more cut it's back to sewing 2-inch squares together.....and pressing the ones already done. You can always find a use for 4-patches made from 2-inch squares.

Sunday we celebrated our twin grandchildren's second birthday. It's just hard to believe they are that old already...and fun to see them learning so much.

Their daycare lady takes pictures during the day and posts to Facebook each day. I always look forward to seeing their cute little faces. They always look so serious when they're working on their art/learning projects.

I rarely leave one of the kids' houses without some sewing project that needs to be done...split seams, hemming, always something. Sunday's project was a little pair of 2 yr. old's shorts that had lost its fake button snap. Of course Grandma fixed it with the right-sized button, cutting the sewn but not cut buttonhole (remember, fake button, fake buttonhole) and a smaller button on the back, fastened with dental floss through the hole of the snap back.  Takes longer to write about it than do it!!  :)

Notice the pink rim on the button to match the pink stitching on the shorts....Grandma's GOOD!!!

Have a great week everyone!

I've Been Quiet..........

Mostly because there hasn't been much to say. :)

The hail in early August pretty much finished off the garden. We had the sweet corn mostly picked. The melons took a real beating. Haven't gotten a single good watermelon and probably won't...the vines were too beat up for them to mature. We've had ONE really good cantaloupe with hope for ONE more. The rest have either rotted or quit maturing.

The squash may have some fully mature ones. I hope so, I love roasted squash. If they aren't any good I may have to actually buy some!

The tomatoes took a beating, with the majority getting rotten before they are ready to pick. With what survived & the ones that kind friends gave me, I've canned enough whole ones, that with what was left from last year should get us through the year. I've been making veggie juice out of the rest. I have one batch setting here to get started on tomorrow and then I'm done!!  I may pick what few get ripe yet, just for eating fresh (BLTs, you know) and to give away.

This past week I stayed with the 16 & 12 yr. old grands while their parents went on vacation. It's easy at that age. They leave for school by 7:30, one gets home from sports practice about 5:00 and the other about 6:30 or so. Feed them and they head for their rooms till bedtime. I think Grandma was there just to make sure that other kids didn't decide that it would be a good time to party there since the folks were gone.

I got a lot of genealogy information entered into my database on Tues. since I was on my own with no distractions other than letting the dog out a couple times. After I got home I nearly gave myself a heart attack....decided to delete some older versions of my family tree. Unfortunately I was careless and deleted all of them, forgetting that my local storage was set to directly save to Dropbox...so it was gone from there too. TOTALLY FREAKED!!!!!  Found an earlier version on the the old desktop computer....but all that work would have to be done over. Thank heaven for paper copies of all the info. Anyway, today I had accidentally deleted something, went into the Recycle Bin to restore it...and lo & behold, there was my  family tree backup from Tues.!! Yay!  Quickly restored it and don't have to re-enter anything. Why didn't I think to look there right away? (Slaps self upside the head. )

Since our son & his family have also been on vacation their little dog has been staying with us. We were kind of double-booked there at the beginning of the week. I think she thinks she's on vacation too because she doesn't have to stay out of reach of two little kids.

Here's a picture of my almost-finished project for Quilt Club on Wed.  We made the blocks last month and of course are supposed to bring back a finished project this month. I want more of the blue to show through the cream color on the frame so I think I will need to scrounge up some rougher sandpaper and work on it a little more. Needs a hanger on the back too. It will hang in my sewing room. (It's not grand enough to be a studio. )

Hope everyone is having a nice Labor Day weekend and that you're making the most of the last days of Summer.