What I've been up to...

 It's been a while since I've had a chance to post, but I have been up to my eyeballs in apples!  I finally got those took care of but soon we will have more that need to be picked.  Sadly, this has cut into my sewing time.  I've done very little sewing lately.  

The heat has cooled off some here so I made my way upstairs to clean!  UGH!  Shamefully it is a mess!  For the past few months it has mostly been a catch all room and stuff is piled everywhere, nothing is organized and a thick coat of dust covers everything.  :(

So I decided to start in one corner...the cleanest corner...and clean.  This is a 3x7ft table and actually I had cleaned some of it before I took this photo. 

 See the dust...

 After photo of my sewing table...

 Directly to the left of my sewing table is my cutting table.  It is the same size.  I didn't get a before photo but let me tell you, I was starting to wonder if there was even a table under that mess.  :(  These are my scrap baskets except for the crystal and silver fruit bowl, those are fat quarters that needed to be put away.  I had pulled them for a quilt but I never got around to making it so I just put them all back. 

 A shot of my bookshelf that has some fabric on it.  It all needed to be dusted and straightened up.  Oh and you can see Hunter's little sewing machine.  It is a Singer Featherweight from the 80's or 90's I don't remember the date right off.  Anyway, that baby is heavy.  I think I paid something like $4 or $5 for it at a thrift store several years ago.  It sews great. 

 While digging through the mess, I did find my dresden plates that need to be worked on.  I think after I get some of Chantal's wedding stuff done I will bring those downstairs to work on them while having some downtime. 

 These are some blocks that I had recently been working on, you probably remember them.  They were laying on top of the mess but I am still looking for the strips that I had cut as sashings.  I know I cut them and do not want to recut them.  They were not in that corner so hopefully I will run on to them as I move on around the room and dig through the mess.

 Leo kept me company while I was cleaning. 

This morning after Hunter left for school, I went upstairs and did some adjusting on my quilting machine.  Sheww...it has been a mess.  I haven't been able to use it because I was having some major tension issues and thread breaks.  I had replaced some parts on it and it still just wasn't right.  So this morning I decided that I either needed to try again or just send it off to be fixed again.  I tore it all down and put it all back together again, did some adjusting along the way.  Knock on wood....it still isn't right but close.  As I was testing it on scraps it did okay but still a few issues that I will have to pay close attention to while trying to quilt.  If it holds up as it was with the scraps I will be able to quilt a quilt...or at least try to.  I loaded a quilt on the frame but haven't started it yet.  I loaded a big one 115x115 on there which now I'm thinking may have been a mistake.  Maybe I should have tried a baby quilt first.  Oh well...

Anyway, Richard is sleeping so I will probably try to start quilting on it after he leaves for work this evening.  Wish me luck!  Speaking of Richard...his new job is turning out well.  The long hours, he is used to but we are all having to adjust to him working nights.  He did it several years ago but not lately.  Hunter is having the most trouble with it.  He was really young when Richard worked nights before and doesn't remember that much about it.  Right now Hunter gets home from school around 4:30pm and Richard has to leave at 6pm so Hunter does have a little time with him during the evening but not as much as he wants.  :)
Kristie 

Apples Galore...

 I am up to my eyeballs in apples!  Between mom, my sister and I we have 7 apples trees to gather and process.  These apples came from my sister's.  This box is huge, it is a big sink box that I saved for this.  We have apples in boxes, buckets and anything else that will hold them. 

 These are going to be jelly, apple butter, apple sauce, and some in the freezer for fried apples and apple pie filling. 

 Like my grandmother that did not waste anything, we are saving the good parts of the apple peelings for jelly. 

 And last but not least...I also put up a bunch of corn! 

 So my day is filled with apples!  Anyone have any good simple apple recipes that they would like to share with me?  My sister made a batch of apple dumplings the other day with Mt. Dew.  We love those things.  I try to make them for every holiday dinner because everyone in the family loves them.  
Kristie

Bubbles and school...

 Night before last I realized that my sister is getting married in 2 months.  October 5th to be exact and I am doing all of the wedding decor and bouquets.  Let's just say....I'm really behind.  For some reason I thought that I still had 4 months!  DUH!  

So yesterday I spent the day decorating her wedding bubbles.  Here are all 100 bottles finished and ready!!!! 

 Here is a closeup of one of them.  It is a little hard to read but the ribbon says, "Our Wedding"  Just a simple bow tied with double wedding rings and a watermelon colored rose glued on it.  Oh and I almost forgot the added bling on the bottom!  Expect to see lots of the "bling" rhinestone stuff on her wedding things. 

 Next I guess I will work on the mother's corsages. I have Chantal's wedding bouquet finished too.  I'm not sure if I have posted a photo of it or not, I'll have to look.  

This morning makes me a little sad.  Hunter started back to school.  First day of 6th grade.  Our county starts back before any of the others around here.  He did pretty good this morning but of course I shed a few tears when the bus ran.  Yesterday was a bad day for him.  He had "meltdowns" all day!  Just unhappy about everything from school starting to the pillow on the couch was getting on his nerves.  LOL!  Just a bad day! 

 Richard is off today and is at my mom's working on building her porch roof.  I am currently upstairs in my sewing room having my coffee.  The weather has been a little cooler so I am going to clean up here before I head to mom's later.  With the heat I've just been piling things everywhere up here and now it is horrible.  
Kristie