Thanksgiving Weekend......busy!!!

First.....the obligatory family photo.............

but wait...........someone is missing........... Here he is in his new pj's that I made for him.

John is in charge of the turkey - brining it the night before in cider and jalapeno peppers.

He and Ashley worked to stuff the bird.

Allison helped with the pumpkin pies.

Her other contribution was a pea and peanut salad that she made.

Andrew wanted to have blue jello that you can eat with your fingers. He helped make that.

Unfortunately I didn't get a picture of the platter that Alexander put together of 6 different kinds of Pringles!!!!!!

We had plenty of food - turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes, squash, carrots from my garden, pea and peanut salad, blue jello, spinach salad with maple dressing - WAY too much for 12 people!!!!!!!!!! Pumpkin and pecan pie for dessert!!!!!!!!!

A little fun time with cousins Erin and Sarah.


Friday was Gingerbread House Day. My mom has been making these since the 1940's. She reserved the private dining room at Burcham. My brother constructed all the houses and bought TONS of candy. I made aprons for everyone.

We three had matching aprons!!!!!!!!!! The boys had theirs - skulls. All the others were different.

Andrew at work frosting his tree.

Allison making a place for her tree.

Alexander worked very hard. He left his house with us - it's on a table in the living room if you want to stop by and see it. Allison gave hers to Great Grandma Kuhlman.

Andrew and his finished house - note the parade of people and animals and the life savor front walk. He was very proud of his work and took it home to show Grandma Norma.

Alexander and his house - it snowed all over the place!!!!!!!!!!! There is LOTS going on!!!!

Ashley and her house............very simple.

PC and her house - love the front walk, decorated tree and the roof!!!!!!

Andrew was helping Sarah............sort of. Sarah went to school in Paris last year - her house had a French touch - Versaille.....with fountain, maze, statues, river, and more.

Erin and my mom working on their houses.

Allison and her house - it snowed on her house, too.

My dad looking over the finished houses. Some were left at Burcham for the residents to enjoy. Many stopped in while we were working to see what was going on.

Group shot!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Saturday I pulled out some Harry Potter legos that I had been given.........what a treat!!!!!!

Great Grandma joined us for dinner.

It was a really great weekend...........lots of family time. It is so good to have the children here and create wonderful memories for all.

I missed walking..............better get back to it tomorrow............5K race coming up in December.............


P.S. - and now for the rest of the story........Saturday after dinner we noticed that Allison was itching her head............yes...you guessed it - lice...........Ashley got the shampoo and then had to comb out in little sections - and found the little critters. I started washing - bed linens all the way to the mattress, towels, clothing, coat, hat, etc........ I washed all day Sunday, too. Not fun for any concerned. As of Monday morning, all that washing has been done..........now just our stuff!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Mariners' Compass

This will be the upper corner of the Lansing Area Patchers next raffle quilt.


Nancy has made a pictoral of the Mackinaw Bridge for the center. It is truely a work of art.


Storm at Sea blocks surround and a neat border will finish out the quilt top.

Happy Turkey Day to all.................gobble, gobble, wobble.............

Aprons, Charity and Cactus

Those three items have NOTHING in common.............just that I wanted to post about them.

First - some "guy" aprons for the day after Thanksgiving..........


Second - quilts for charity. This one will go to Ele's Place - with a tote bag.

This will go somewhere. The pieced squares are "hearts" given to Rosie when she was ill. She put them with the royal blue. The little red (yes, it really is red) print on the outside was from her stash.

This is my old Christmas cactus. Much of it died and had little bugs in the soil so I put it outside on the front deck. It loved it!!! The leaves got all red and it had many blossoms. So I brought it in, watered it with soapy water to kill the bugs and we are enjoying flowers. I"m waiting for the bugs to come back!!!!!!!!!!

Meanwhile..........at Horrocks they had beautiful Christmas Cactus and I bought a new one - it is truely georgous!!!!!

I also picked up a little one and took it to Burcham - my mom says it's beautiful........

Quilting By The Lake

This is the view from the deck................. Seven friends gathered for the weekend..............Lori, Chris, Cindy, Bonnie, Lisa, me, Deb.

We even entertained the turkeys!!!!!!!!!!!

Bonnie had these block layed out on the floor one morning...........

Our work area is in the lower level..........machines humming...........

Lori worked on two quilts for her grands - making clothing to be appliqued.......one little boy, one little girl. I didn't get pics - but they are LOTS of little pieces and trims and darling.........

Deb sewed together her block exchange blocks.

Chris put this together for her husband..........lucky guy!!!!!!!

A variety of table runners hanging from the mantle!!!!!!!!

Cindy put together these triangles - but will be making more to finish this.........

You can see the houses in the background - those were her block exchange blocks from this year - she finished up that top.

Lisa did this - it's really great!!!!!!!!!!

I put together my block exchange blocks - they will be quilted for a Christmas gift this year.

It was a wonderful get-away. Lots of sewing - many more quilt tops than pictures. I'm sure Cindy will have more on her blog. We had great food - Chris cooks Mexican!!!!

We went into Scottsville for dinner at a cafe and found fabric at a "dime store" - flat folds at a great price!!!

I got out for a couple walks, pieced the above quilt top and 2 others for charity and started piecing a mariners' compass for the LAP raffle quilt.

Now back to the real world.............next event - Thanksgiving dinner for 12!!!!!!!!!

Aprons

I went crazy making aprons. These are a jazzed up version of a butcher apron. Very simple. Band of contrast fabric at the top and pocket.

They are intended for a family event the day after Thanksgiving. I think I have one for every lady that will be there. And 2 little girls.

New art quilt

This is what I have been working on. The hand dyed fabrics were purchased a couple years ago and I quickly made the curved units. It all vegged in my closet for some time.


The last couple days I've had some time in between work, cleaning bathrooms, walking, yard work, etc to sew this together. It will be machine quilted and put on the market.

I still have plenty of the fabrics left. The fabric is very tightly woven - looks good for a fusing project next............