Quilting!

The Ruthie picture is up top this time because I forgot to put it at the bottom! When I'm using the "large" and "center" options to load pictures, I can't move them around within the post, which means I have to plan ahead and load them last one first.

Ah well. This one was supposed to be in the last post, but I accidentally erased it while backspacing. I love this picture and am considering enlarging this one and framing it.
Last week didn't end up nearly as unscheduled and relaxing as planned. I considered it an extension of the wedding since a lot of what I had left to do was finding places for the no longer needed wedding paraphernalia. There were also more errands and other odds and ends to do than I'd planned.

This week, however, has been my "off" week. While I'm back to having to cook with the wedding leftovers all finished, other than my errands today I have little on my schedule.

The wedding tablecloths were all washed and there weren't any stains to be found on them. That left me with about 21 yards of red fabric and 6 yards of white fabric for making quilt tops. After some playing around on graph paper, I came up with a top that I liked. I'll be showing the blocks as I go and the end result will be a surprise.

I'm making two of these quilts, one for Rebekah and one for me. I'm using the white head table fabric for hers, but just some plain white that I had here for mine. The reds all came from the table cloths.

These are split nine patch blocks. There are a dozen of these 9 inch blocks for each quilt.

These are Anvil blocks. There is also a dozen of these 12 inch blocks for each quilt. Next up will be some flying geese.
Along with the red and white quilts, I've been working on Carpenter's Wheel blocks. Years ago I made one giant one for a lap quilt for my brother in law. I love this block, and am making 16 of them, each different colors, for a nice sized lap quilt. Here is the pink one.
And the purple block.
I pulled fabric for a few more and will pin it to triangle paper. Here is a dark blue and medium blue.
The fabric for a medium blue and light blue block.
I pulled greens, too, the light and medium will be one block and the medium and dark, another. I'm having so much fun with these that I have another top in mind for the Carpenter's Wheel block. It will have darker colors and more predominant prints, I think.
Not all the thoughts are on quilting. I got a $10 off coupon in the mail for Penney's. I love these coupons, there is no minimum to spend so I head to the clearance racks to find one or two items that total $11-15. I found this blouse and had to have it, $14.40, which means I spent under $5 to get it. I have quite a few things in my wardrobe that would go with this blouse. With the basic pieces covered (neutral skirts, slacks, and jackets) I'm having great fun adding some color to my wardrobe when I get these really good coupons to use. With the wedding over, I'm hoping to hit the clearance racks once or twice a month to slowly add to my closet. I usually only buy one piece at a time, but it's starting to look like a wardrobe!
My really nice coffee pot died a few weeks ago. I pulled an old one out of the closet to use for a while. Unfortunately, that one started leaking badly. I make a pot of coffee and it lasts two to three mornings. I drank the last of it this morning and was hoping we could swing a new, inexpensive pot this week. This is now gracing my counter, the first pot made and ready for morning (I don't drink my coffee hot except on rare occasions, so usually make it the night before.)
The quilting/sewing is well under way and I'm enjoying it immensely. I don't have anything but church Sunday morning that will take me out of the house, and then I have errands and music work to do on Tuesday. That means most of the next week can be spent working on quilt tops. I'm hoping for a break in the heat and humidity so I can hand quilt some, too, but for now, watching these blocks come together is giving me a thrill!

Happy quilting!

Sue

I'm Officially a Mother-in-Law

What a day it was. This is long, a pictorial recap of our wonderful day. I think we all actually slept well the night before. I was concerned about Rebekah being too tired since she didn't sleep well Friday night. I woke up in the night to find her packing her suitcase and some of her clothes that were still left, to the light of the TV so she wouldn't wake her sister. Perhaps that ended up being a good thing, she was well rested and all smiles for her big day.

I forgot to bring my camera to the rehearsal, though the photographer was there and I should be able to get some pictures from her. We also have 5 disposable cameras full so if I find some good pictures on them I may just do an additional wedding post.

After the rehearsal, we came back here for a pizza party, our house was quite full with 30 people in it, but we sure had fun. I heard one of Rebekah's friends tell someone that she didn't think anything could wipe the smile off her face, and that was true for the entire day. I think that morning she woke up knowing that rehearsal day was the beginning of her whirlwind weekend.

We woke up around 7am on Sunday, Rebekah started doing the girls' hair, I packed up many boxes and bags to bring to the reception hall. After a couple of trips, and a lot of running around, it was time for me to come home and get ready. When I came out with my dress on, Ruthie's eyes lit up and she exclaimed "Ruthie dress!" Yes, it was finally time. Here she is admiring herself in the mirror.

She was all smiles and didn't hide out in her room in spite of the bridesmaids and photographer all around the house.

Once ready, it was picture time. Here are the girls having some fun while taking pictures. The photographer was trying to get a picture of them jumping and catch it with them all in the air. She succeeded after a few tries. My camera didn't respond quickly enough, I got a cute "in progress" picture.

Time to settle down for some serious pictures. I was trying to stay out of the way, so some of mine weren't as close as I'd like, I'm looking forward to seeing the photographers pictures. She was doing a marvelous job.

Here is Mike with Rebekah. He looked so good in his tux!

I hate pictures of me, I almost didn't include one. Here we are with our beautiful daughter, so ready to be married and starting her new life.

Here's one of Rebekah and Rachel. Rachel was maid of honor and a lot of help to her sister. They've shared a room almost their whole lives, there were tearful hugs near the end of the reception. Though Rachel is looking forward to having her own room, and, of course, Rebekah is thrilled to be finally marrying her love, I know they will have fond memories of the late night conversations and giggles long into the night in the little room they shared for so long.

I love this next picture, I might have to enlarge and frame this one.

After a few hours of running around, the plans we spent so many hours on were coming to fruition. Here is the hall, decorated and ready for the reception. The head table has a white tablecloth, the rest are red tone on tone type fabrics. These will be washed and made into a quilt for Rebekah for her birthday next January. With how much fabric I needed for tablecloths, I should have enough left for a wedding memory quilt for me, too!

After a final check of the hall, we headed out to the beach. They were determined to have a beach wedding, in spite of the odds of a horribly hot and humid day in mid-August. When the 15th first showed up on the 10 day forecast, there was a 60% chance of rain and 87 muggy degrees. That changed as the days went on and what we got was about 84 degrees, low humidity and a nice breeze (almost too strong) right off of the lake. We arrived about 45 minutes before the wedding time, to be here to greet the guests as they were shuttled over from a nearby church parking lot. Ruthie was checking it all out. The arch in the background was made by Jonathan and framed the lake nicely for the ceremony.

Here is a picture of the girls in their places. Rebekah did all of their hair, including her own!

And another of the guys. Why are they facing the lake??

Because the preacher had just told us all to rise and prepare for the nautical entrance of the bride. There they are just having come around the bend.

Here they are, a little closer, I'm sure the photographer got better pictures. The pontoon boat went past us and docked just past where the violinist was playing.

Here they are, Rebekah, Mike, and Rachel, who is holding her dress so it didn't drag along the cement boat launch ramp.

I didn't realize until later that I'd not taken any pictures during the ceremony. I was taking it all in and didn't want to miss a thing. Here are some from after the ceremony.

Brian, with the bridesmaids.

Rebekah, and the groomsmen. Someone yelled out "are you going to wear shades?" The guys all had them in their pockets, one of the groomsmen's wives lent Rebekah a pair.

Rebekah and her new husband...and her new inlaws.

There was quite a bit of picture taking and we were the last group to leave the beach. We had asked Rachel's boyfriend's parents if they would go on ahead and open up, fix the punch and put out appetizers so that the guests weren't stuck waiting around while the shuttles returned guests to their cars.

We arrived to this scene, our guests clearly cared for and visiting among themselves. Brian and Rebekah saved their entrance until we had arrived.

A view of the head table. Brian is talking to his friend, who drove 8 hours on Saturday, making it just in time for the rehearsal. After the wedding, he and his wife left to drive home again as he had a meeting he couldn't miss on Monday morning. That's a GOOD friend!

We moved the arch from the beach to the hall, it found it's place behind the bride and groom.

Here they are cutting their cake. It was a giant cupcake (I hope the photographer took one, I think I forgot though am hoping there is one on the disposable camera), with red icing for the "cupcake paper" and white icing on top. It had a linking heart topper and Rebekah loved it.

Here they are feeding it to each other. I'm so glad they didn't smash it, I hate when people do that!

Rebekah made her bouquet and an adorable little version of it to toss. Rachel caught the bouquet.

Next came the garter toss, look at that group of young men! Somehow our oldest son managed to get the garter. I thought I had a picture of Rachel and Joshua together with their prizes, maybe it's on the disposable as well. There's another I'll be looking for among the photographer prints.

At 8:00, this showed up outside the hall. It would be taking them to Milwaukee, where they had a morning flight out. Now that's going in style!

Here is the happy couple, on their way out. She hated to change out of her dress, but didn't want to smash it in a suitcase. The veil folds small, so it made the trip. There were many happy tears and shortly after the other guests began to leave as well.

There was still a lot to do once it was all over. Marshall's mom and another friend took over the kitchen during the reception and wouldn't let me work, and there was much help when it was over as well. Some fun music went in the CD player, and Rachel worked on getting Ruthie to dance. She did pretty good at mimicking Rachel's moves.

Lucas danced with her a bit, too, but I was too slow to get a picture. This one is almost as good.

There was still much to do when we arrived home, the cars had to be unloaded, the leftover food put away, and flatware and serving bowls to be washed. I took my time, and enjoyed a mental recap of the day.

Today was a pretty lazy day. I planned for doing as little work as possible for the week. I started reading a book, I plan to do some sewing, but mostly I'll enjoy the lack of scheduling for a while.

After a day full of posed pictures, Ruthie planned this one. I was taking her picture and she pulled Lucas over, showed him where to stand and pulled his arm around her.

These balloons were left at the hall from a party the night before, so Mike brought them home for Ruthie after he did the last of the cleaning there. She loves these, we put long ribbons on them so she can reach them even if she lets them float up into the cathedral ceiling. She's quite thrilled with her "bwoons."

Tomorrow is errand day, but I'm hoping to make quick work of them so I can do something enjoyable for the afternoon.

Quilting/sewing will be big on my list once I get rested and recouped. I haven't had much time for it lately, other than finishing their wedding quilt, so I'm looking forward to getting back to some set aside projects....and a couple of new ones!

Sue

The Home Stretch

What a few weeks it's been! This will be a mish mash of things that hopefully will make some sense.

Two weeks ago was Rebekah's bridal shower. It was lovely and she had such a good time. My wallflower is embracing her day and enjoying all the festivities surrounding it. I pulled out my veil to see if she'd wear it and she quite willing did.

We played a few games, had appetizers and cake, and of course, opened gifts. On the left in the picture below is Rachel, who kept track of the gifts for Thank You notes, and on the right is a good friend of both of theirs (and she's Rachel's boyfriend's sister), she made a bouquet from all the ribbons and bows. Ruthie joined us and was very quiet, though didn't hide her face at all. She sat my feet most of the time and started getting comfortable about the time it all was winding down.

I was able to finish her quilt for the shower, finishing the binding about 1/2 hour before it began. I can't believe it, though, I didn't even get a picture! I'll have to take one or have her take one for me.

With that big event out of the way, I was knee deep in the rest of the preparations. In the last two weeks I spent a few days making cakes (pictures of which are in my previous post) and have a total of 12 dozen individual sized cakes. There should be plenty of cake left as we'll have 144 cakes and only 65 guests! My family will be glad to have the extra treats floating around, between squeezing all the wedding paraphernalia into the budget and my lack of time, they've been missing some of the homemade treats that are often around.

I also made bows....lots of bows. They are hanging on my design board, pinned to my quilt hanging on the wall and even pinned to my dining room curtains. These will decorate the walls and corners of the windows of the hall.

I also made ribbon bows. The picture doesn't do these justice. Hopefully the day of the wedding I'll be able to get a better one. For now, the bows reside on my sewing room valance. There were a lot of little jobs to be done, too. Rachel's dress needed a seam repaired, Rebekah's veil needed to be secured more firmly to the barrette, and I decorated some flip flops for Ruthie to wear. She LOVES these and every so often will take them and wear them a bit. After the wedding she'll be free to wear them whenever she wants, for now, I want them kept clean and neat.

Her toenails will be painted red to match the girls' dresses and her hair will be curled and put up with a pretty silver clip.

While all of this wedding craziness was going on, we had other big things happening as well. The company my husband works his second job for got outbid for the custodial contract and he was laid off for the first time ever in his life. We need that job, it carries our insurance and provides the extra income we need to make ends meet. It was not clear if the old staff would be hired on by the new company or not, and for four weeks we've been hanging, wondering, and I've been searching out jobs for him to apply for. Online applications take about an hour and he's not really computer literate so the bulk of that fell to me. The last couple I found I let him sit and fill out, he has a new appreciation for the time it takes!

As of mid week we heard that a new company was hired (one was, but reneged when they realized they had way underbid) but they were mostly bringing in their own people. I've been feeling a bit resentful that all this has to happen during what should be a really fun and special time. Thankfully, just today he got a call that he is being rehired, starting Monday, as the lead person, which means a little more money than the other crew members, though it's still a pay cut. At this point, we're thrilled to have it and it's a BIG load off of our minds.

Of course, we cannot have one good thing happen without something bad happening the same day (quite literally, unfortunately) and within an hour of that phone call my son got home from work and his truck broke down in the driveway. I feel so badly for him, but at least there will be vehicles available next week with the honeymooners gone and that gives him time to take care of business with his.

Tomorrow night is a pizza party at our house after the rehearsal and then as soon as everyone leaves I'll be starting to gather up all that needs to be taken to the hall on Sunday.

Also since the last update, Lucas had a birthday. He and Ruthie have been champs about keeping busy with all that has been going on. Lucas chose s'mores and rootbeer floats as his dessert this year. Bless his heart, he doesn't realize how much easier that made things for me!

We spent an enjoyable evening outside, the firepit going, with Lucas and Ruthie running around and playing. Every so often, Lucas would lay down in the grass, and Ruthie would lay down beside him. I could hear them laughing from across the yard, they have such a good time out there. Ruthie loves to be outside and runs out whenever anyone else goes out. If the screen door closes too quickly, she'll go out the back slider and run around to the front.

Ruthie has also really enjoyed her Daddy being home evenings for the last month. She's got him wrapped around her little finger. She brings him books to read and they sit/lay on this little couch while they read, play, or just chatter.

I think that's everything! I have a busy couple of days, but after that I'm on "vacation" for a few days, hoping there is enough food left that I don't have to cook, and not too much post wedding clean up to deal with. In any case, I can take my time and with my husband back to work as of Monday evening, a big burden has been lifted.

Hopefully I'll be back Monday with a big wedding update and lots of pictures!

Sue