A Prairie Gem

Well, this weekend was the long awaited quilt show.  WonderMom entered her serendipitous quilt and showed it off proudly to those who came to see it.  Here's the best shot we could get of the whole thing.  It was hung on the side of a booth and we couldn't get far enough away to get a straight shot at it.  I'll get better shots of it tomorrow and replace/add to this one, so check back.  Sorry it took so long, but here is a full on photo of the quilt.

and as close up of the quilting

No, she didn't win anything, and that came as no surprise after seeing some of her competition.  It was obvious to us that her quilt didn't have enough actual quilting on it, even if the quilting was excellent.  Most of the other quilts were closely quilted over their entire surface.  Her quilt was only quilted in the border and in the black "came" between the pieces of colored fabric.  In any event, it was an enjoyable and educational experience for her, and she doesn't feel badly about not winning anything.

Here are a couple of the quilts that did win something.  Although it is hard to tell from these photos, there is a bunch of quilting on all of them.

These are some of the small quilts WonderMom made for the auctions held during the show.  They brought in some good bids and $ for the 

guild.  

On to AZ next winter to enter in the ASU Quilt show.  Maybe she'll come up with an idea to add quilting to the project and improve her chances.

 

Teaser!

WonderMom got her special quilt back from the quilter last Friday.  She's really pleased with the results.   She plans to enter it into a quilt show competition this coming weekend.  Before then she has to trim it to square it up, hand sew 32 feet of binding, attach a quilt hanger, and a label.  I thought I'd post a couple of teaser photos prior to the quilt show.  

Front

Back

I should have some good photos of the completed quilt as it hangs in the show. It is too big to hang anywhere in our house!

ReBath Revisited!

I blogged earlier about having ReBath redo our tub/shower area.  They called last week and scheduled the installation for Friday, Sept. 19th.  Tomorrow at 7:30 AM (ouch)!  So today, Thursday, Sept 18,  I tore into the bathroom, stripped old paneling off of the walls, ripped up the carpeting, and removed the lavatory, all of which we are replacing. 

I was working on the paneling, and ReBath called and said they would be late - 9AM.  That's OK.  Better for me.  

So right after I removed the lavatory, and the vanity, essentially making the bathroom unusable except for the toilet, ReBath calls again.  They just inspected the tub insert for my installation and found a manufacturing defect!  

My options are:

a) wait 2 weeks for a replacement insert to be made (in Mesa, AZ!)

b) They will install a replacement tub, which is actually a new tub, not an insert.  They say this is a more expensive option, but they won't charge me any more money.  

OK, no brainer on which way to go there!  It'll be interesting to see how the get a new tub into this bathroom which is only 5 feet by 6 feet!  The tub, which is 5 feet long, fits in the 5 foot dimension, of course, and takes up 28 inches of the 6 foot dimension.  Yes, it is a tiny room, but it works for us - for overnight company, not so much!  We have a half bath in the basement.

Friday morning Bert and Ernie from ReBath show up.  We go through the project together, and they seem like good guys, friendly and accommodating.  I ask to see the replacement tub to make sure it is something we want - it's fine.  

They start tearing off the old shower surround and removing fixtures while I'm working on stuff in the garage, when it happens!

Bert comes out, talking on the phone and asks me if the house is a modular home - it is, mostly factory built in 1956.  The old tub is a non-standard size narrower than normal.  The new tub won't fit.  It's not too long, but too wide - 33 inches!  There won't be room for the vanity if the try to put it in.  Rats!

We discuss it for a while.  They apologize all over themselves for the mistakes (made by the office) and offer to do all kinds of things to make me happy.  We decide that the best thing would be to wait for the replacement for the liner to come from AZ - a minimum of 2 weeks.  They put the fixtures back and calk the open corners of the exposed old shower paneling with all the glue lines on it from the surround plastic I put over it.  It is serviceable, but ugly.  

So we'll be roughing it until the 2nd week of Oct. anyhow.  I told WonderMom I would put the lavatory back for the duration and she says, "Don't bother.  I can brush my teeth in the kitchen!  Just make the shower work."  Isn't she wonderful?

I'll follow up on this when it happens, so check back.

Up, Up, and Away!

This weekend is the annual Balloon Rally in West Forgottonia.  We went there with Cricket and her kids (Paco was busy protecting us with his tuba)!  Well, this year, the balloon glow got drizzled out.  Only a few of the almost 30 balloons were inflated for the glow.  I got a few videos of them, but it wasn't nearly as nice as in the past.  Too bad!  Here are some photos and a video of the event.  Enjoy!

We're Home, Y'all!

Can't spend too much time down here in tarheel country. Ya start to talk funny!

The visit with Socket and family was great. We got to sleep in their bed and they suffered the inflatable on the floor! That sure was thoughty of them, don't cha think! (See! I told you.) 

We arrived Friday afternoon had a fun visit with Pickle who was happy to see us and gave us lots of hugs!

She delighted in showing us her bicycling skills and was so pleased with herself. She is a hoot!

We had dinner at a recently re-opened (after being hit by an airplane!) seafood buffet Friday night. The food was... filling!  They (NC folks and southerners in general) have a different idea of what tastes good than we northerners do, so we don't usually appreciate their cuisine!

Socket drove so he could show off his new (to them) Camry - nice, and because I can't find my way around down there. Not a straight road in the state!  Their system of roads was laid out by cows and wild game! And I'm suspicious about the source of the road names, also!

Saturday was rest up, get reacquainted (we haven't seen them since May '07), and grocery shopping day. Socket checked out the "Check Engine" light that came on in our van on the way down. He has the technology and knowledge to do these things so we're in good hands. Nothing serious, but we have to put up with the light being on all of the time. I reciprocated by rescueing stuff from the hard drive on his old (defunct) PC and getting them on his Mac. He also cooked some steaks on the grill for dinner. 

After dinner we went to visit some of their neighbors, an older retired couple who treat Pickle like their own grandchild. She visits them on her own quite a bit and even eats lunch with them sometimes. It's good that she has someone like that around for her since we can't be there all the time (or very much).

Sunday was fun day. We went to t'baccy town to the Marbles Kids' Museum!

They have a magic machine that shrinks you down to the size of chess pieces so you follow the action close up!  Here are Pickle and Gramma (aka WonderMom) at a tiny table by the chess board! (kidding!)

Socket and Pickle ham it up for the cameras at the fire station.

And they had a fantastic Thomas Tank Engine layout.

Pickle was the center of attention in the sockey rink.

And was pleased as punch with her sweet self!

After the Marbles Museum, the "grownups" got to go to their fun places... The Apple Store and Barnes & Noble book store.

Monday was Socket's birthday so WonderMom and Mistletoe fixed him a bodacious cake. Socket whipped up some homemade peach ice cream. We had the neighbors over for cake and ice cream and a little birthday singing after dinner.

Tuesday morning, after dropping Pickle off at day care, we headed home, with an overnight stay in Chillicothe, OH, same as on the way down. Wednesday we arrived back at the ranch about 1 PM, and spent the rest of the day resting up. The drive was fine as was the weather, both ways - except for the rain in the 30 miles closest to home - both ways.

We did get a little of the fallout from Gustav while we were in NC, an occasional rain, no wind. Looks like Hannah is heading up the coast with Raleigh as a target. Thankfully it looks like it is running out of steam, so the threat is minimal. We apparently had a brisk tailwind
heading up through VA and WV because the Snowbird got 27+ mpg!

So we're home again and ready to get on with fall.