3rd post in one day

Whoa, 3rd post in one day after nothing since the 21st!  Well, I've been busy, as I often am, but I did have to get through that holiday.

(FYI, I can't find Margarita's BOM top but I am right in the middle of backing up my picture folder to thumb drive.  I can't look further till later.   I left that off post number 1.)

It helped that I had pies to bake and share for Thanksgiving.  I ended up spending all day in the kitchen since I cooked three meals ahead as well as preparing some of the ground meat for later use.  My neighbors were so sweet to invite me to join them for dinner as it got me out of the house, off the couch and kept me from getting too mopey (not entirely but mostly.  I had a little meltdown, I admit).  I had to leave before the others as I needed to walk Oscar and feed the critters.  Everyone had filled up with dinner and barely touched dessert at the point so I left the pies up there.  Well, I had successfully made Robert an Old Fashioned Chocolate Meringue Pie and he had set it back, just like his dad used to do. I told him that one was for him anyway, part of his holiday tradition.   By Friday when I went back up for the leftovers they were cutting into it so I tried a sliver.  Robert said it was pretty close to what his mom used to make while their son Nick said it was delicious.   Most of the Dutch Apple Pie I had made was gone and half the No Bake Pumpkin.  I put that all in the freezer.  Later Glynda brought me a plate of leftovers which I appreciated the next day.

I drug in all the Christmas boxes to purge out what I did not want to keep and decorate the house.  That big white box is gone as is the flat one in the front of the pile.  I did not get the Christmas tree  down from the shed rafters however.  I doubt I could trust either of the critters around it.  Skyler can't climb it necessarily without claws but he will not leave it alone or tries to climb under the tree skirt.  Oscar?  Don't know since we have not gone through that holiday together yet but it is a tree and he will pee on anything vertical.  I don't know if I could assemble it anyway since that was DJ's job and the instructions are long gone.

This morning Skyler managed to knock the inn keeper of the nativity set off the kitchen bookcase where I also set it up.  Decapitated him when he hit the deck.  I was eating my breakast French Toast with one hand while I held on the figurine like it was a hand grenade hoping the glue would set up, LOL.  When I had set it up, I had stuck down the sheep as those have gotten lost or knocked off by Skyler or his predecessor Pippi.  DJ would knock the angel off the creche on occasion too.   Everything but Mary and Joseph IN the creche got handi-tak'd!!

I quilted the bulk of Donna's #2 quilt on Sunday afternoon, all the horizontal "lines".  We are having mild weather mid 40's to almost 70 so he is out more than he would like lately.  I had completed the verticals one night after I got Oscar settled in.   I actually liked the serpentine stitch better when the crossing lines were done.   I hope she will like what I did with it.  There is one more top to quilt but the last I heard her sewing time was directed elsewhere and then pink one was not done yet.

I've also had the guild newsletter to do up along with a several flash emails requests.  The Christmas party for Friendship Quilters is coming up in 10 days.  There was other paperwork to do on the homefront as well.

The only sewing I got done was working on the kitchenchair pads for Glynda.  I wanted her to have them by Thanksgiving when guests were coming.  My first plan absolutely did not work.  We brainstormed a bit and I said I would try it on one of the smaller pads and see what I came up with.  The 2nd one worked out better but I tweaked it by the 3rd attempt by pinning the fabric around the cushion snugly and marking where the stitching should go and halving the back to accomodate the double thickness of padding.   I had to set up in the kitchen to sew so I could keep an eye on Oscar but also had to set up the serger to control all the ravel-y threads.  Oh did I tell you that I cut up Oscar's dog hammock to make them???  Yep, he was crawling under it and what good did that do.  I also had spare yardage that the gal at Downing's just gave for the end of the roll.  It went to good use and all 6 chairs are freshly padded.  I managed to squeeze out one smaller cover, should Robert still need an extra pillow on his chair but tossed all the scraps and miscuts.  I'll still be spotting that green fabric in threads on the floor and carpet for months, I swear.  Just like Christmas tree needles.

I had planned on finally getting to that zip zip bag kits as a reward type project but decided that I DO want black cotton webbing, not the letover poly dark gray that I had left from the hammock project.  It is ordered.   Frankly, I was busy in the kitchen again yesterday and the window to sew anything closed.  I had also planned on cleaning house today----well, thinking about it us as far as it got.   Let's just say that it and the laundry are pending.  Probably a grocery store run too since the list is growing when lots of time is spent in the kitchen.

Tomorrow I am invited out to lunch with some friends at a more upscale area restaurant so I don't know that my "uniform" of t-shirt and jeans will be appropriate.  I may need more time to dress up a bit, LOL.   We decided to go out for breakfast at Cracker Barrel for our Belles Christmas get-together, keep it simple and still have most of the day free after.

Here are my two boys on a recent evening.  It was too warm for me to wear my housecoat so Oscar took that as an open invitation to climb on.  His spot is on the other end of the couch on Skyler's old fleece pad.  My robe fabric is a bit like his camo throw that he sleeps with so that might explain it.  Looks like they are getting better about being in close proximity??

He's barking and we should go walk one more time before I bring him in for the evening. The sun is creeping lower in the tree line and so many of the trees are bare now.  Not all of them in the neighborhood but the really big oak at the neighbors almost looked like it was raining leaves when we were out earlier today.  It's December so it is time.

Guess that's it--------we all caught up now?

ED.  Okay I found Margarita's Patience Corner top.  This is her first quilt!  She is primarily a knitter and a master one at that but we are proud that she is branching out!

Sorry I couldn't locate it earlier.